”Don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions!”
The above quote is an understandable wish that you sometimes hear from people in leadership positions. This cry often results from the feeling that people complain just to complain. If it feels like you’re meeting resistance day in and day out, with people bringing up issues and wallowing in problems, it’s understandable that you start to wish for a different kind of attitude.
A distant relation to this wish was a suggestion that critical feedback should always include a concrete suggestion. When I published my post on the Observation + Impact feedback model a couple of years ago, I got this comment on LinkedIn from Miika Kuisma:
”When you give critical feedback, the best type of feedback is a concrete suggestion. For example, instead of encouraging people to reduce stress, you can suggest regular exercise in the forest. Or instead of saying “I didn’t find button X”, you could say, “Couldn’t button X be in spot Y, where it would be more easily found” et cetera.”
Both of these wishes touch on a good idea: let’s focus on solutions. However, both of them have the same two challenges that it would be good to acknowledge.
1. The solution doesn’t always exist
First off, it’s possible that the person bringing up an issue doesn’t have a solution. If the existence of a solution is a requirement for bringing up a problem or giving feedback, some very important observations may be left unsaid. People don’t dare to say anything when they don’t have a concrete solution.
There are a lot of problems that are so complex that finding solutions to them may be difficult – especially alone. The person bringing up the issue may also not be quite sure about the problem or the feedback they’re giving. Then feedback is (as it should be) a conversation opener that aims to examine what the problem is, whether it really is a problem and how it could be solved.
2. Sometimes the solution is bad
Secondly, the solution the person bringing up the issue would propose can simply be bad. That person might not have full understanding of the context or the whole picture. They might not know the history or understand all the other issues affecting the problem.
Sometimes the solution is too complex, sometimes too commonplace. If you always need to provide a concrete solution, it creates a risk that people will make up half-hearted solutions just to avoid seeming like complainers. Going through these half-hearted solutions will take up (everyone’s) time and resources for no good reason, if even the person proposing the solution knows that it’s not a particularly good one.
The solution: being solutions-focused
The solution to both of these challenges – and both of the original wishes – is to bring a solutions-focused attitude to the table. The person bringing up the issue doesn’t necessarily need to have a solution at the ready. (Of course they may, if they do.) Instead, they must have a willingness to solve the problem together. The important bit is the conversation that bringing up the issue provokes.
The same applies to giving feedback. The person giving feedback might not have a concrete suggestion about how to do things better. Instead, they should be willing to look for it together, give their own view on the subject and be ready to participate in the discussion about the subject. Or to support the person receiving feedback as they solve their own problem.
Being solution-focused also has the advantage that it allows for an actively listening and coaching approach. Sometimes people don’t want other people to solve their problems or they’re fully capable of solving them themselves. A solution-focused person is always looking for the best route towards a good end result, and that route might not always be the one that they initially thought it would be.
Let’s start by looking in the mirror
Because we can only change ourselves, self-reflection is a good starting point. When I bring up an issue, talk about a problem or give feedback, do I genuinely want to help find a solution? Or am I just pushing the issue away from me and waiting for someone else to solve it?
It’s also important to examine whether my own actions are somehow part of the problem. What do I do or don’t do that might help create the problem or maintain its existence? These reflections are familiar from the Responsibility Process, which is one very useful tool in strengthening solution-focused attitudes.
All of us can be part of the problem or part of the solution – even if we don’t yet have the solution.
TL;DR Solutions are not always the answer – being solutions-focused is
- Simple ”bring solutions, not problems” thinking is understandable, but it can stop important observations and issues coming to light.
- The person bringing up a problem doesn’t always have a solution – and they don’t need to.
- The proposed solution can be bad, in which case discussing it will just waste time and energy.
- The person bringing up a problem doesn’t need to have a solution ready. The most important thing is a solution-focused attitude where the goal is to solve the problem together.
- Self-reflection is a good starting point: do I genuinely want to help solve the problem?