All posts by Debra Yearwood

Communications, Government Relations, public relations

Know When To Fold Them

So it’s one thing to reflect on communications from the comfort of your office, but what happens when you do all of the right things and then because of the personality quirks of the person you’re meeting with, things get weird anyway?

A colleague of mine once took a client to meet with a member of parliament (MP) in the ante-room of the House of Commons. The MP was on her cell phone when they arrived for their meeting and waved to them to join her. As they approached she paused in her phone call to tell the client to start speaking. As soon as he did, she resumed her call. The client quite naturally paused again and the member of parliament stopped her telephone call long enough to tell him to continue. When he did, she did too. Eventually, my colleague signalled to the client to stop and they said goodbye to the MP without delivering their message.

You might think that it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that this is rude behaviour, but sometimes powerful people get so used to being catered to by their staff that they can lose sight of what is appropriate. They are by no stretch the norm, but they are also not as rare as we might like. In situations where your audience is being confrontational or just plain rude, it is best to cut your losses.

Quick Tips:

Try to refocus the meeting on the agenda topics.
Terminate unpleasant or unproductive meetings at the first feasible opportunity.
Do not take the opportunity to yell or make a scene, it may feel good momentarily, but it will most likely hurt you and in the long run gain you nothing.
If you are really annoyed about how you have been treated then share your story if possible. If you can’t, chalk it up to experience. We can learn from good meetings and bad ones.

Communications

Build A Pitch – 3 Online Elevator Pitch Builders

Debra Yearwood 10 Comments

The search for the perfect elevator pitch is something that preoccupies entrepreneurs, students, job seekers and many others. There are probably a million articles online that talk about how to build a strong elevator pitch. With a push towards automation, I anticipated finding dozens of tools that could build the pitch for you and while there are numerous tools that help you to build an attractive slide deck, there are relatively few tools that help you to build a pitch from scratch, here are three.

Pitcherific https://pitcherific.com/

Pitcherific helps you to create different types of pitches depending on your membership. With the free account, you can work on your elevator pitch. Pitcherific starts by focusing you on four elements, the hook, the problem, the solution and the close. Its strength is in helping with the timing of your pitch, providing a framework you complete depending on your objectives and allowing you to practice your pitch with a teleprompter and choice of simulated audience.

The teleprompter function also allows you to test your speaking speed both with the pitch in front of you or with it hidden. It allows you change your potential audience so that you can better imagine how it will feel to deliver your message.

You can also record your pitch with Pitcherific, a great feature if you have to send your pitch to someone or if you want to see how you look in action. If you need help, then Pitcherific allows you to co-edit a pitch online.

From my perspective, an elevator pitch as a quality introduction (See, The Truth About Elevator Pitches), rather than the world’s fastest sales job, so the structure Pitcherific provides is limited. Fortunately, paid accounts can create custom templates and you can adjust timing to suit your needs.

Buzzuka http://www.buzzuka.com/

Buzzuka helps you to structure your elevator pitch based on a series of questions and then generates the pitch using your answers. Needless to say, that can make for some awkward pitches, but you can always edit them once you see how the structure was intended to work.

What I like about the Buzzuka process is that it makes you think about your objectives, your benefits and features and most importantly, your audience. Buzzuka also provides examples of pitches created by other users. What I like less is how much your final Buzzuka pitch sounds like a commercial. If you are pitching an idea in an environment that expects a fast sales job, then this tool is a great way to start, but if you are looking for an elevator pitch to use in most day-to-day environments, then this won’t quite hit the spot.

Pitch Builder https://pitch.fi/

Pitch Builder helps you to build a pitch deck that should take 24 seconds to deliver. It’s a free tool and helps you to build a persuasive message by focusing your attention on identifying the problem, the solution, the market, your plan and proposed deal. It also allows you to add information about yourself.

The challenge is in the number of questions asked and the way the questions are presented. If you actually follow along in most cases your pitch will use up more time then you should. In addition, the slide deck format implies more formality than you would typically have at a reception or in an elevator. The product is in the beta stages, so I expect to see new features or refinements with time.

All three of these online tools have elements that are helpful, with Pitcherific probably being the most useful at this stage, but if your pitch really matters, then nothing is as effective as you. You alone can read your audience in the moment when you are delivering. You alone can adjust and respond. Having a well-crafted pitch is the beginning of the process of engagement, not the objective. Your pitch is about being prepared and understanding your product, service or your own talents well enough to talk about them with ease.

Related Articles:

Build A Pitch – 3 Online Elevator Pitch Builders

Management

Time Keeps on Tricking

Debra Yearwood 69 Comments

Time and I have never been great friends. Not surprising coming from a champion procrastinator, still, I haven’t had as much patience for Time as I’d like. It’s not that I expect to love the way Time operates, but it’s just that Time has always struck me as being a little skittish. You’re in the middle of doing something important and suddenly Time is gone like you hadn’t been working together to accomplish something. Then there are those moments when you’d like Time to get going and instead of hopping on it, Time just lingers and lingers, hanging around like a bad smell. All in all, I find Time just a bit too temperamental for my taste.

My lack of simpatico with Time has meant that I’ve had to come to an agreement about certain things just so I can avoid Time conflicts. For instance, when I travel, I get Time on a leash. I watch every second as if it were my last and plan for all eventualities because if you’re not careful when you need it most, Time will get away from you. One moment you’re flying and the next, you’re stuck at the airport and Time has hopped the last plane without you. I also don’t play around with Time when I have critical deadlines or meetings. I make sure I’m well prepared in advance in case Time slips away.

Rather than be defeated by Time, I thought it would be better to go back to basics and implement some tricks for managing Time.

11 Time Management Tips:

Schedule time for the things you care about. If you don’t make time for these things you will find yourself living without the things you love or crashing into other priorities because you didn’t make the time.
Identify your priorities. Do the important things first. Every day, decide what matters most and get it done or at least make some progress on it.
Set time limits. There’s nothing like a deadline to sharpen your focus and push you to get a task completed in a timely manner.
Schedule time to be distracted. Years ago an old boss told me that I should schedule half my time for the things I needed to accomplish and half my time for the things that would get in the way.
Set objectives. Before starting meetings, tasks or calls, determine what you want to get from them. This will allow you to focus your time more effectively and you will know whether you have been successful. Don’t forget to take the time afterwards to determine whether you achieved your objective.
Create systems for staying organized. Organizing systems don’t have to be complicated, they are really meant to create shortcuts for deciding where things should go or what order they should be done in. It can be a simple as a filing system or reducing the amount of email that comes across your desk.
Make sure you get enough sleep. Different people need different amounts of sleep, but we all need to sleep. Experts suggest that you get no less than 7 hours but you may need as much as 11 hours to feel well rested.
Eat well and Exercise. When we are healthy, we are more productive. Studies show that exercise increases the blood flow to the brain increasing alertness and focus. Exercise also increases our energy level and brain function.
Schedule time to think. If I can only do one time management trick, then that’s the one. In order to plan, perform and produce, I need to think. No matter what you are working on, it will go faster and smoother if you think about it first, even if time doesn’t seem to be your friend.
Say “No”. Don’t overburden yourself, it adds stress and means that you are constantly fighting an uphill battle to meet objectives. Even a great opportunity can become a problem if you don’t have the time to manage your priorities.
One thing at a time. The quickest way to overwhelm yourself is to try to tackle everything on your list at once. Break activities down into digestible pieces and do them one at a time.

What do you think? Are you friends with time? How do you manage time when it decides to manage you?

Communications, Internal Communications

What Do Work Nightmares Tell Us?

Debra Yearwood Leave a comment

Since today is Halloween, I couldn’t resist taking a look at nightmares. Work nightmares in particular. These night terrors fall into two categories for me, waking horrors, things that happen at work that embarrass or freak you out, such as calling your boss by your spouse’s name during a meeting, (I won’t touch the Freudian implications of that one). Then there are the nightmares where you suddenly realize that you have to give a presentation in 15 minutes on a topic you know nothing about. In this post, I’ll explore the sleeping nightmares and what they are trying to tell us.

Our dreams are messages that we send to ourselves. They tell us what we really think about a person, issue or activity. They are also one of the ways our subconscious tries to solve problems that have been presented to us during the waking hours. Our dreams, even the awkward ones, give us some insight into our own minds.

I once had a dream in which I was in a huge auditorium with thousands of people. My boss was standing on stage with a microphone when he announced that I would be leading the next part of the presentation. Presenting didn’t faze me, nor did being called upon to do the work unexpectedly, the nightmarish bit was that I had no microphone, no slides and no way of being seen or heard. I couldn’t get to the stage and I couldn’t get my boss’ attention to tell him. When I recalled the dream the following morning, it made me laugh…at myself. I’d been worried about my budget and the tools I had for my job. My concern was that I would not be able to deliver on objectives because I didn’t have the right resources. I thought I had resigned myself to working with what I had, but apparently, my subconscious had other ideas and wanted to demonstrate the outcome of working without the right tools.

Looking at your dreams is an opportunity to get to know yourself better, but you can’t be too literal. Just because work shows up in a dream, doesn’t mean the dream is about work. We spend so much time at work that it makes it easy for our minds to call on those elements to send us messages. The opposite is also true. You could have elements of your personal life in a dream that’s really about work.

If you dream about sharpening a million pencils it doesn’t necessarily mean you are worried about dull pencils. You could be frustrated about menial work you have been doing or a repetitive task. The point is, dreams and their interpretation is a very personal thing. The same item appearing in the dreams of two people can have dramatically different meanings for the dreamers. What we see, feel and hear in our dreams is all about us. Remember, everyone in your dream is you.

There is also some research that suggests that the flow of a dream is a reflection of your subconsciousness trying to make sense of the random images flowing through. Have you ever woken up to the sound of a radio? If there is a news broadcast playing, then elements of the news can filter into your sub-conscience before you are fully awake and create interesting and random dreams. This is true for any external stimuli that might leak into your dream.

Interpreting Your Dreams

What’s important to note is that if you have repetitive, stressful or particularly vivid dreams that feel associated with work, you could be sending yourself an important message. Your challenge is to interpret what that message means for you.

One of the simplest ways of analysing your dreams is to start with what is happening around you. Your waking life will be full of clues about what’s causing the dreams, its generally something that has happened in the immediate past, the last day or week. Our subconscious doesn’t usually store things for later review. Something in your immediate world has to act as a trigger.

The biggest indicator of what a dream means for you is how you feel in the dream. Although scary things may be happening all around you, if the dominant emotion you are feeling is NOT fear, then the dream’s intent isn’t to frighten, believe me, your subconscious knows what buttons to push to frighten you. If you’d like a little help interpreting dreams, check out Susan P. Cooper and Cheryl Therrien’s, “Dream Catchers“.

Have you ever had a nightmare about work? Ever come to a realization or a solution based on a dream? What do you do to get rid of scary dreams?

Communications

9 Ways Social Media Does Good

Debra Yearwood

We regularly hear about the destructive power of social media. There’s no doubt that it can create a variety of problems, but social media also has a positive side.

Continuous Improvement Process: One of the most interesting aspects of social media is that it behaves like a continuous improvement process. The algorithms of social media are always assessing and adjusting, which means that as participants we must continuously adapt. Whether it’s changing the interfaces we use to access our favourite sites or changes that make businesses rethink their approach social media keeps us on our toes.
Brainstorming: Looking for a solution to a problem? Try engaging online. Social media is one of the few places where brainstorming actually produces a number of innovative ideas. In addition to the many useful blogs on an array of issues, there are also many brainstorming apps.
Measuring Progress: Social media comes with an array of metrics. Even in its most passive form, it tells us who we are connected to and with whom we have interacted. For business, it produces metrics that can measure performance and it never stops changing those measurements in a continuous effort to better measure.
Free Advice: Not sure what to do next? While everything you find on social media isn’t necessarily helpful or accurate, there is a lot of good and useful information. There are also lots of people who are happy to share their experience and advice at no cost. LinkedIn’s professional groups are a great resource when you are looking for advice or suggestions and the same can be said for Facebook social groups.
Tribes: Social media allows people with similar interests and values to meet and exchange ideas. No matter how unusual your preferences, you can generally find someone online who shares them. For some people, their online friendships are often the only ones in their lives that are supportive, creating a necessary lifeline.
An Equal Playing Field: Social media allows individuals to have a voice as powerful as large corporations or governments. This has gone a long way towards improving customer service and making large and small organizations more responsive. While it may not always work for everyone, it has gone a long way towards building powerful platforms for the little guy.
Better Informed: While mainstream news on traditional platforms like print, radio and television are good at sharing those things the majority of people are interested in, it can ignore critical information for minority communities. Social media allows alternative voices to be heard. It also allows us to focus in on those news stories we care about the most.
Social Awareness: Social media is amazing for gathering and coordinating support in times of need or crisis, like during natural disasters. It is often the first place people go to find out how loved ones caught in disasters are doing.
Keeps Us Safe: Social media is a great tool for focussing attention on organizations or individuals doing harm. Social media was used to bring attention to and undermine the power structure of Joseph Kony. Social media can also help authorities to track and find criminals, such as the Boston Marathon bombers who were identified through posted images from the day of the bombing.

Related Articles:

5 Lessons on Advocating with Social Media

Communications, Government Relations

What was the message?

Debra Yearwood 6 Comments

Imagine planning a message for two months and then forgetting to deliver it. Sound impossible?The following story really happened.

The real estate group had been planning their presentation to the Minister of Industry for about two months. They had prepared slides and organized who would speak first and who would address the series of itemized issues. The Minister was next to impossible to book and so this meeting was considered quite a coup within the organization. The presentation went like clockwork. The Minister and his staff had sat with rapt attention through the slides. The assistant had made occasional notes and the Minister had asked questions. It was, therefore, something of a shock to the group when the Minister at the close of the meeting turned to his assistant while the group was packing up and quietly said, “Why did they want to meet?”

It was no less surprising when the assistant shrugged her shoulders and said, “I don’t know; I assumed they wanted to address the pending legislation but they never mentioned it.”

Since the real estate group was under the impression that everything they said was related to the legislation, though they never actually made the link, they were somewhat dismayed.

Tips

Assume nothing before a meeting. Always clearly state why you are meeting and what you would like from the meeting.
Decide on a facilitator, someone who will lead the meeting and keep things on track.
Be clear on what you specifically would like the person you are meeting with to do next.
Make sure that you are always linking your information back to your objectives.
Avoid jargon, it is difficult to follow and may disengage or confuse listeners.
Ask if there are any questions before you conclude the meeting.
Follow up in writing restating your request and the highlights of your message.

Although the story relates to a failed government relations venture the same lessons can be learned by anyone trying to communicate. Essentially don’t get so preoccupied with how your message is going to be delivered that you don’t spend enough time ensuring that your audience actually gets the message. Imagine taking out a full page ad in a paper your audience doesn’t read or posting an important family message on Facebook and assuming all your relatives will read it.

Management

Service At All Cost

Debra Yearwood 16 Comments

When I first worked for a member of parliament I was tasked with responding to all of the correspondence that came into the office. This was back in the day when correspondence involved the postal system and computers had two colour options for screen displays, orange or green.

Some of the messages we received would be from industry leaders expressing everything from concern to dismay about a recent government announcement. Some were outraged letters from constituents complaining about misguided government policy. Many of the letters were, well for lack of a better word, crazy.

They reminded me of nothing so much as, Letters From A Nut, these missives from Ted L. Nancy were rife with odd requests and strange preoccupations. The difference is, that while comedian Barry P. Marder wrote the Ted L. Nancy letters, the letters appearing on my desk were written in full earnest by constituents.

The woman who wanted the grass around the mailbox cut, not the lawn…that was cut, but the grass a few inches from the box, “it was a disgrace on federal property.”

Or the lady who felt she had a democratic right to a free air conditioner. Then there was the gentleman who wrote to his MP to explain how much he liked to eat road kill. He at least was pleased with government policy that made that possible. Of course he was not nearly as disturbing as the two brothers from a rural part of the country who wrote in demanding wives. I’ll admit an air conditioner seemed almost reasonable by comparison.

The thing is, no matter how odd or outrageous the letter, a polite and reasoned response had to follow. The issues could not be ignored, dismissed or blown off. Constituents who had taken the time to write in deserved an answer. Whether it was clarity on constitutional rights or a quick call to Canada Post requesting that someone with scissors head over to the post box in question, letters were not only answered, the issues in them were fully researched and addressed as far as possible.

What that experience in a political office did was give me an effective lesson in customer service. What it looks like, how it operates and the lengths you need to go to. You see it didn’t matter that we did not deliver the air conditioner, what mattered was that we took the request seriously and responded thoughtfully. People remembered that on Election Day. To be sure there were times when people wrote in or called the office with issues I found offensive, but my job was to listen first, see what if anything could be done to address the issue, explain why if it could not be addressed and offer up alternate solutions.

Since my time on the Hill I’ve had plenty of moments where I’ve thought back to those letters. Instants where I would have liked noting more than to kick the person in front of me, instead, I’ve smiled and thought of ways I could help. It isn’t always easy, it doesn’t always work, but the interesting thing about that is, in the end, whatever was making them/me/us crazy didn’t matter. We didn’t remember the issue, just how we felt at that moment. People don’t remember the specifics of the product they remember the service.

Image courtesy of Miles Stuart at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Communications, public relations

Getting the angle right, your personal brand photo

Debra Yearwood Leave a comment

I was thinking about pictures the other day, pictures of scones to be precise and wondering how I wanted to set the scene for them. What props would work, what lighting would be good, how would I convey quality? It struck me that I was more worried about how the food would look than most people are about the pictures of themselves they post. They weren’t even my scones.

I’m even worst when it comes to people. I will spend ages thinking about how I want board members, senior management or the CEO viewed. I have destroyed images of senior management I thought were in poor taste or inconsistent with the corporate brand. I’ve also used funny pictures of the CEO to convey warmth and humour to staff. The point is, some thought should go into each photo and how it’s used. What is the objective, what message is being conveyed, what audience are you talking to?

I have watched with some curiosity and a little dismay as coquettish, slightly boudoir, images have shown up on LinkedIn. I have a sense of humour, so while I often find them funny they also make me a touch uncomfortable because they really don’t belong on LinkedIn. I can’t help but wonder what the person is trying to convey in a business setting. Here are some tips for what to avoid.

The Boudoir Photo: If there is a feather boa in the image, then don’t use the image for your professional shot. It’s not that I have anything against feather boas but what they call to mind are things like, the Rocky Horror Picture Show and exotic dancers. Unless you are selling costumes or polls for dancing, lose the feathers.

The Angry Woman: Do you know what happens when you hold your phone in your hand and look down on it in concentration as you take a selfie? You get the Angry Man/Woman photo. It’s a photo of your nostrils, always attractive, while you look down your nose at the viewer. How appealing. If you are smiling then it can look creepy or patronizing. If you’re not smiling, you have the perfect Angry Man. If you’re going to use a selfie, lift your hand to head level or slightly higher.

The Location Shot: I’ve seen quite a few “professional” shots of young men at the beach lately. The attire is what you might expect for a beach photo, shorts, and shades. In some really interesting branding choices, the person is not wearing a shirt. The individual is often trying to give me advice. I think they are trying to say, “Look at me, I’m so successful I now live the good life.”

What I see is a guy too inexperienced to know what’s appropriate. Here’s my advice, if it’s good enough for a restaurant, then it’s good enough for your professional photo. No shirt, no shoes, no service. Extend the thought to include that there should be no shorts or shades in a professional photo.

Where’s Waldo: The Where’s Waldo photo comes in many forms. It’s can be anything from a family photo or a corporate shot. What they have in common is that there’s more than one person visible. So now the viewer gets to choose. Is it the guy on the left or right? Where is the subject? If it’s a man and woman in the photo, the poster’s name might give you a clue, providing their name isn’t gender neutral like Kelly, Beverly or Pat. Even if the name does make it clear, why is the other person in the photo? What is the unstated message?

Eye Spy: These are among my personal favourites. It’s really about not wanting to include a photo of yourself so you use one where you are so small that the viewer can’t quite see you. It’s the photo of the Grand Canyon and you’re off to the side like a perspective reference. This is a useless shot and tells the viewer you don’t really get the point of including a photo.

I could go on, the photo with plunging neckline for men or women is a no go, as is the open mouth speech shot. The point is, decide what you are trying to convey about your personal brand with a photo. Do you want to earn trust, their time or just their attention?

I get that people don’t want to be sheep. I appreciate wanting to do something a little different, you can do that without becoming goofy. Above all else, a professional photo is supposed to make you look like a professional, or at least it shouldn’t make you look like a felon.

Some quick tips for good shots.

Use natural lighting. This does not mean squinting into the sun, but it does mean avoiding unnecessary shadows or that shiny-face look that can happen in night shots. Not to mention the red eyed demon that comes with poor lighting.
Focus on the chest up or just head and shoulders. This means you will be the central focus of the image.
Think about how you want to be seen by a client, not your buddies.
Use a professional photographer. When chosen well, they are worth every penny. Consider it an investment in yourself.

How did you choose your photo and why? Do you think your photo matters to your brand? Have you ever seen a photo and thought…what were they thinking? Have you ever seen a photo and thought, brilliant!

Image courtesy of stockimages/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Communications, Government Relations

5 Lessons on Advocating with Social Media

Debra Yearwood Leave a comment

I initially wrote this post back in 2013, but a number of factors made me think it was worth another look.

The election of Donald Trump and his love of Twitter
The creation of “alternative facts”
Concerns about fake news and
Facebook’s algorithms

If you’re wondering about the last point, then consider that your newsfeed on Facebook is based on what you have liked in the past. This means that all you will see are the opinions that agree with yours. Facebook is working to adjust this, but its worth noting that as brilliant as we may be, alternate opinions are important to have a realistic and balanced view of the world.

Social media has changed the way we communicate and the way we advocate to the government. Messages placed online become living entities fuelled by others. The popularity of these communications tools provides every Canadian with an opportunity to not just express an opinion, but to be heard by thousands of others and possibly generate support for their perspectives. This opportunity has not been lost on legislators and political candidates who quickly created their own profiles in an attempt to reach broader audiences. The challenge, of course, is that like all communications tools, you have to use them with care. Social media does not mean accuracy or the use of facts. It also does not need you to keep a message moving once it starts to roll.

In 2008 when the federal government announced Bill-C-51, which had the stated objective of modernizing 50-year-old health legislation, no one really expected anyone beyond health professionals and other healthcare stakeholders to pay much attention. Instead, what seemed like an army of angry Canadians rallied around concerns that the new legislation might limit the availability of certain herbal remedies. Communications grew so vociferous and hostile so quickly that the movement became a testament to the effectiveness of social media.

Concerns about the Bill came close to hysteria in some instances. One website claimed that the new legislation would give the government the right to invade homes and remove materials without the need for evidence or a search warrant. Another site warned Canadians that a police state would result from the implementation of the legislation. The Health Minister, who was initially dismissive of what looked like a small group of misinformed people, found himself having to explain and defend the Bill in the press and on the Health Canada website.

So while all this people power sounds like great news for the average citizen, you might also want to ask who started the commentary on the Bill. There are no assurances that blogs or the information posted on social networks will be accurate or honest. There is also nothing to prevent people with a specific agenda from generating misinformation or confusion around a given subject.

Lessons Learned

Always take into consideration who is active on the websites you use as resources.
While blogs and social media sites represent a great communications opportunity, they also carry with them significant challenges and some pitfalls. Know who is talking to you and to whom you are talking.
Consider the strengths and weaknesses of different social media sites and use the ones that best fit with your objectives, audience and your time. Once you engage, stay engaged.
If you use social media, do so with the understanding that it requires your full attention as a communicator.
Social media is not a billboard. People can not only react to it, they can take over your message. Sometimes that’s a good thing, so don’t try to control it, but do try to respond immediately when they take your message in the wrong direction.

Related Articles:

9 Ways Social Media Does Good

Internal Communications, Management

Problem Solving 101 – How to Solve Problems

Debra Yearwood 31 Comments

Ever notice how easy it is to solve other people’s problems? When presented with someone else’s conundrum it can be easy to assess the possibilities, look at what might work and develop solutions. To the person who owns the challenge, our proposed solutions may seem innovative, creative, and perhaps even ingenious. “How did you come up with that solution so fast and make it look easy!?”

When our personal paradigms, perspectives or biases do not weigh us down, problem-solving is relatively easy. We can get a handle on the problem; look at each possible solution and determine next steps. The challenge, of course, is that we don’t get to ignore our own difficulties and focus exclusively on other people’s problems. The biggest hurdle to resolving our own problems is that there are two kinds of solutions, the ones that work and the ones we like.

If your emotions, ego or attitude are all wrapped up in the outcomes, how do you avoid distracting yourself? How do we harness our own inventiveness and objectivity, while avoiding natural biases to solve problems? Start by taking a deliberate approach.

8 Tips For Problem Solving

Figure out what the problem is. This may seem obvious, but unfortunately, problems can stretch out longer than they need to because we assume what the problems are rather than taking the time to analyze them and make sure.
Once you know what the problem is, refine and define it as clearly as possible. Develop a laundry list of elements that make the problem completely transparent. If there are elements that you cannot define, make a note of them too. Make sure that you list the barriers to resolution.
Consider possible approaches to reach solutions. Do you need to ask for help? Do you need to do some research, interview experts or contemplate the problem more?
Once you have gathered all of your information, put it in one place and organize it so that it makes sense and it is easy to identify individual elements. What do you need to do first? What parts hinge on others in order to be successful?
Determine what represents low hanging fruit or easy fixes. Quick wins are not only easy but are valuable because they boost morale and build momentum.
What will take more time, money and resources to resolve? All solutions should be either easy or matter. What are the mini projects you need to do in order to get your big projects accomplished?
Keep track of what you are doing as you do it. Make sure you are moving in the right direction by monitoring progress. Team and the communication within the team are critical. Getting the right people in place and making sure that communications are effective will go a long way towards avoiding unnecessary roadblocks along the way.
When the process is complete, make sure that the results you have achieved are the ones you wanted. Sometimes we achieve the right outcome but create other problems along the way.

What do you think? How do you resolve challenges? Ever solve a problem that had someone else in knots? Have you had a problem easily resolved by someone else?

CommStorm

All posts by Debra Yearwood

Know When To Fold Them

Build A Pitch – 3 Online Elevator Pitch Builders

Time Keeps on Tricking

What Do Work Nightmares Tell Us?

What was the message?

Service At All Cost

Getting the angle right, your personal brand photo

Problem Solving 101 – How to Solve Problems

Developing Better Professional and Private Communications