How to Deal with Problems

Business thought us that we need contingency and mitigation plan. Contingency plan prepares you and your organization to respond coherently to something that was not included in the plan. In reality, it is normally part of the plan. But, it might be on a separate document. Mitigation plan is purposely designed for lessening negative effects of something that cannot entirely be prevented. For example, global warming cannot be entirely prevented, which is why most – if not all – countries agrees that the pollution should be minimized.

I like problem because it makes us feel alive. My favorite kinds are resolvable with different resolutions. The one I fear is the one without options. A problem that we can handle is gold, while the one we can’t handle make us feel disappointed, making depression inevitable. It does not matter what the problem is, as long as there is a solution, we can take action.

The best step to dealing with any problem is to direct your focus into where you can control. A problem will occurs, and instead of thinking of it, rather focus on the areas to control in other to solve it. Ask, what can I do to solve it? There are seven simple steps to dealing with most – if not all – problems. It works for personal and business problems:

1.      What is the problem?

The answer has to be extremely specific, and you could brainstorm to find the most specific one.

2.      Where do I have to change?

Know what needs to change in other to solve this problem. For example, in other to make more money, I must increase (the change) my sales.

3.      How do I change it?

Don’t try to think of things you are currently doing. Rather focus on how to make the changes. I recommend that you choose different alternatives (3 to 4). Before you choose them, I recommend that you just reflect on different things you can do, exclude the unproductive ones.

4.      What works best?

Evaluate the alternatives. This is about going through the alternatives, and narrow them or rank them. It focus on ranking the best alternative first, and continue in that other.

5.      How will I do it?

As we all know, everything is in the execution. The best thing to do is to ask questions about how I will execute each alternative as evaluated.

 

6.      Do it

Execute as planned under 5.

 

7.      Does it work?

When we do something, we’d have to know if it works. If it does, then celebrate, and if it doesn’t, then ask question about what went wrong: is it the planning (how will I do it?) or it the execution (do it)?

In conclusion, for you to successfully solve a problem, it has to be under your control, and not the other way round. This is where we can take appropriate action. It gives us options for resolution. But the problems that is controlling us is most troubling. When a problem is controlling us, then we should ask a question, how do I put it under my control?