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Love your problems

Love your problems

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They are beautiful, and tell you something about your hidden strengths

Digital strategist Tom Critchlow on the great improvisational art of consulting and problem-solving in organizations:

When you find a problem, look for the hidden strengths around it. “The key is not to hunt for problems but to hunt for systems. ‘Problems’ are often just the other side of the coin for the client’s strengths.”

“Anything that’s ‘broken’ is in fact a symptom of a strength. And only once you can see the threads that tie these together can you start to understand how to fix the problems while maintaining the strengths.”

“Optimism as an Operating System”

What’s the secret sauce a great consultant or problem-solver brings? Optimism.

“One of the things I’ve noticed about being a consultant is simply bringing positive energy is a huge asset….” There is inherent “value to positivity — bringing energy and enthusiasm to an organization is worth something, entirely independent of the results and outcomes you’re working on.”

“The strongest language you have as a consultant is: ‘this is a solvable problem.’Bring calm to high-pressure situations, and remind people that this may take a while to solve. There is value in changing the energy and changing the conversation in an organization. These are precursors to real change.”

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Better teamwork for busy humans

Matt Thompson is obsessed with better teamwork and human collaboration. He's the author of The Joy of Teamwork (coming 2020), a practical guidebook for healthy, high-performing teams. (Read more)

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