I had an interesting experience this morning over a print job I am getting done.  I contacted a company that have done some work for me in the past and asked them if they were able to a job for me that had just come up and that also had a strict deadline that had to be adhered to. After a phone call or two a couple of emails later the quote came through they agreed they could do the job have it shipped and hit the deadline, it was all looking good.

Graphics had been sent the brief was clear then, I get an email saying there was an issue with one of the graphics that wasn’t big enough to use. So my question was, can you offer me a solution to which Daniel replied: I can’t use the graphic because it’s too small it needs to be much larger!

My reply to Daniel was, okay I get that can you offer me a solution his reply: The graphic won’t work because it’s not big enough and I don’t have time to fix it! The conversation went back and forth like this with me asking the same question each time: Daniel can you offer me a solution, and every time his response was going over what the “problem” was and not even thinking about a solution.

I finally convinced Daniel that I understood what he was saying, and once again asked him what potential solutions there were? At first he didn’t have one, so I asked what if we could get an extension of 24 hours, could they then produce the Logo in the format they needed and do a high quality print job. The answer was yes. So the long and the short of it the print job is getting done the client is happy and is even able to handle the deadline change, all is well!

The point of all of this raised to me was how often do we have a “problem” and our whole focus is on the “problem” why or how something can’t work, who was at fault and caused the thing to go wrong in the first place and why it shouldn’t have happened and why something can’t happen now because this isn’t right or that isn’t right.

The type of thinking that produces solutions is not the same type of thinking that focuses on the problems. So how many things do we in fact make more difficult by focusing on the problem rather than looking at potential solutions.

You’ll notice that I said potential solutions, very often when we have a “problem” we get used to sorting things out in a particular way using the methods we already know.

The best way to address any “problem” is to look at from a range of angles, often referred to as “thinking outside the box” because many times out of what may appear to be an impractical or non feasible idea, the solution to your problem may appear.

As was the case with Daniel this morning, it was not feasible from the client brief to change the deadline date, however once we spoke with the client about it, it turned out to be very suitable.

So next time you are faced with a “problem” as quickly as you can move your focus from the “problem” to potential solutions and you will be amazed at some of the ideas you have. Some ideas will be so good, you will thank your lucky starts that you had the “problem” in the first place.

And the well worn delightful old cliché will prove itself right yet again “Every Cloud has a Silver Linning”

Yours in Success

Linda Cargill-Selfe