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Topic: Issues & Problem Solving

Avoid These Bad Decision-Making Habits

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Man presenting in front of his team

*To help our readers navigate their businesses and organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic, we are re-posting this relevant blog post from April 19 and May 1, 2018.* In Chapter 6 of Traction, Gino Wickman shares ten “commandments” of a team that’s great at solving issues. Because solving an issue often requires one or more decisions … Read more

Fix the Fear of Conflict For Good!

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frustrated employees in a meeting

frustrated employees in a meeting, dealing with conflict in the workplace

In an EOS® Annual Planning session, our clients put “Fear of Conflict” and “Failure to Hold Each Other Accountable” on their Issues List. Those issues are obviously connected. Yet when it came time to solve issues, the team chose to work on just about anything but those two. They were, it turned out, afraid of the conflict they might experience if they tried to figure out why they were afraid of conflict.

This was clearly the elephant in the room, so we finally called it out and asked them to deal with it.

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Solving a Family Feud In A Family Business

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wo angry business partners and family members fighting

wo angry business partners and family members fightingDuring the Issues Solving Track™ (IDS™) of a recent quarterly meeting with a family business, two brothers started having this conversation: 

Mark: “I’m sick of you taking jabs at me in these meetings!”

Scott: “I’m sick of you always thinking you’re right”

Mark:  “Are you going to accuse me of being mom’s favorite again?”

Scott:  “You ARE Mom’s favorite!”

Mark:  “I can’t do this with you.”

Rest of the team: (looking nervously at the floor)

Me: Time out!

Sheesh! Does this sound familiar? 

When tensions boil over and family members on the leadership team have at it, nothing gets done and everyone else loses trust that they can be open and honest with each other.

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Good Problem Solving is Like Flying Through the Eye of a Hurricane

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eye of hurricaneI often remind my clients that an issue is just that… an issue. 

In other words, there is nothing they can’t solve. It’s simply that some issues are bigger and more emotionally charged than others.

People issues usually top the list as the toughest to take on. Many leaders delay addressing these problems because they fear they will be painful and result in unpleasant outcomes. Good problem solving is like reaching the eye of a hurricane.

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How To Stop Being a Problem-Plagued Company

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Two workers in the Operations Department of a company were working one Friday evening to push out a late delivery. One saw a problem about to happen and said to the other, “Look at that!  We can’t ship this out. This order is not correct.”

“You’re right,” said the other, “But neither one of us can fix it. Nobody can fix it until Monday. The boss told us to get this shipment out tonight, and we’ll get yelled at if we don’t. Remember what he did the last time something like this happened?”

So out the order went, and in came an angry customer complaint two days later when the order was delivered. And then out went a chunk of the profits from the order because it cost the company three times as much to fix the error than it would have to get it right the first time.

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Conflict Creates Clarity

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conflict in leadership teams Some of the best meetings that I’ve been in lately are the ones where members of the leadership team challenge each other.

There’s debate and pushback and the discussions are heated. Each person is actively engaged, putting the greater good of the organization ahead of personal agendas. Sometimes the feedback they give each other stings a little. But, when the dust settles there’s clarity around the root cause. Conflict creates clarity.

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