Allied Solutions
Your job is to solve problems.
It probably feels like that, at least, given the proverbial fires you have to put out on a daily (*clears throat* hourly) basis. Processes break down, unexpected things come up, systems glitch, and people are messy. All of those require that you spot a problem and remedy it.
And being a problem solver works when you face simple, straightforward problems. You spot the problem, perhaps do some digging to understand what’s really going on, then identify and proceed with a solution to keep the project or program or client moving forward. Phew! On to the next one!
Right?
Right.
Buuuut maybe not always…
I’ve found that going in with a solution can come back to bite you. This isn’t to say that there’s something inherently wrong with being solution- and action-oriented. Quite the opposite. However, when problems become more complex, when your goal is to develop and empower people, or when there are multiple stakeholders affected, I’d argue that it’s not YET about the solution.
In these situations, it makes all the difference when we slow down, understand what the problem really is along with its context and constraints, and then lean into what we might call allied solutioning.
What follows are sketches of how we might experiment with allied solutioning to bring about more inclusive, empowering, and innovative solutions than traditional linear, problem-solving. I offer these ideas not necessarily as THE one right way, but as an alternate approach that might inspire a in shift the dynamics and results you create.
Leading Within Your Team
There is strong research-based evidence that the best teams are those that leverage a foundation of psychological safety. Such teams collaborate, innovate, pivot quickly, and move the needle on what matters all while reporting better experience and engagement ratings. (For a primer on psychological safety, check out this overview from the Center for Creative Leadership.)
A popular problem-solving “rule” relayed by managers can quickly squash any advances in your team’s psychological safety, though. Perhaps you’ve advised some eager, early-career professionals to “never bring a problem to the table without recommending a solution” (or some variation thereof).
It’s a well-intentioned rule, and one that was indoctrinated into me during business school and mentors, then reinforced by my managers early in my career. Looking back, I can say it challenged me to take ownership, and to be resourceful and creative when issues or roadblocks came up. I suspect it also kept me from bringing every freak-out moment (of which there were plenty) to my manager and colleagues. It’s a good reminder to slow down and start identifying potential solutions when a problem arises, and it discourages complaining for complaining’s sake.
BUT (you knew there was a “but” coming) such a message creates conditions of acceptance, and it doesn’t leave a door open for not knowing everything. Both of these things erode a sense of safety around being in learning mode and challenging the status quo.
If having a decent answer is a precedent to asking a question or raising an issue, people will either 1) keep their mouth shut entirely, or 2) delay surfacing critical topics that can make a difference in the business’ delivery to customers and other stakeholders.
Instead, from an allied solutioning perspective, your new “rule” is to encourage individuals on your team to bring roadblocks or potential issues to the table. Full stop. No conditions.
From that open place, your response to problems being surfaced and your modeling of allied solutioning can build team members’ muscles for developing creative, resourceful, and collaborative solutions. To get into allied solutioning mode, it’s time to turn off assumptions and turn on curiosity. Then ask questions to get a good picture of the situation.
Your modelling of this openness and curiosity may be all the team member needs to see appropriate solutions they didn’t spot before. Or you may decide together that the problem is complex or new, and it would therefore be best to dedicate more time and/or bring in other people for discussion of the problem and solutions.
You could take this to the next level by carving out recurring dedicated time to bring unsolved problems or questions to the table. Imagine the improvements possible were you to proactively invite questions and challenges out into the open! Instead of emergency reactions, perhaps you can catch something early or even anticipate a problem before it happens.
When done constructively, this attitude around problems and solutions can build on itself - boosting psychological safety, inclusion, collaboration, and innovation in a virtuous cycle.
Influencing Outside Your Team
That same rule of always coming with a solution chafes a bit differently outside of your direct team. Psychological safety-squashing can certainly be at play, but cross-functional problems or discussions with clients and other stakeholders add the tricky variable of competing resources and even competing goals. (Cue doom-y sound effects.)
Proposing a solution to another department or to a client might seem good on the surface. After all, you’re being a strategic partner, and you don’t want to burden them or appear incompetent! But declaring a solution from the beginning can leave others feeling that their interests and needs are discounted, or worse, threatened.
That’s no small problem. These colleagues and clients are humans, and that means that feeling discounted or threatened will most likely trigger reactions ranging from disinterest to resistance or outright adversarial warfare. It’s the ancient biological fight or flight overlaid on our modern world. Unwittingly you might have just turned them against you and any ideas you want to propose.
I ’ve found that going in with a solution can come back to bite you.
So, how can you avoid triggering this kind of resistance? To begin with, I’ll copy and paste the guidance I shared above for solutioning within your team: “It’s time to turn off assumptions and turn on curiosity. Then ask questions to get a good picture of the situation.” In practice this looks a bit different given the external-facing context.
Let’s look a bit more closely at how you can bring in deep listening for a collaborative, allied solutioning approach to problem solving.
Before even scheduling time with the other party, check your intentions.
Mindset matters. It’s helpful to slow down and check in with yourself. What is your real goal? What does “success” mean for this situation or problem? To what degree are you feeling and thinking openly versus narrowly? How much judgement or blame are you feeling about the situation, problem, or other parties involved? These questions can help you check in and acknowledge where you might bring some stickiness. If you notice judgement or offensive / defensive thoughts, consider whether you can be successful in moving this forward right now.
Lead with the objective facts or observations.
When you meet with the stakeholder with whom you hope to identify an allied solution, it’s helpful to start with neutral information sharing. This doesn’t need to be anything fancy. If you have data to present, great! Otherwise, this might be as simple as communicating what you’re seeing, and what concerns you. Or you might explain what you’ve been charged with and what you see as the parameters.
Ask questions with curiosity and an anthropologist’s mind.
Once the basics have been shared, it’s time to hand the mic to others. Invite others into the process by asking questions and *really listening* to their responses. This is where it gets interesting. Really listening goes beyond just words to what is being communicated through tone of voice, body language, emotions, and maybe even through what isn’t said.
Here are some examples of questions that can get the conversation flowing:
As I share all of this, what’s coming up for you?
What stands out to you?
What’s driving that?
What do I need to know about [topic]? What do you see that I’m not seeing?
What (or how) would [other stakeholder] think about this?
What roadblocks do you anticipate?
What resistance do you expect?
Your goal in listening to the responses is to understand what the other stakeholder values, what resources they care/worry most about, and what goals are most important to them. They aren’t likely to give you all of this information in bullet point format. You’ll need to gather clues based on what they say. Here are some examples of what you might pick up on:
Their team is overloaded and they feel protective of the capacity of their people. They are hesitant to agree to another project because their team is already stretched too thin.
They have a high tolerance for risk and experimenting. They’re willing to participate in pilot programs and wade into untested waters.
They prefer to have time to process new information, and they don’t want to feel like things are finalized at the end of the meeting with no opportunity to revisit.
Their priority this year is to streamline existing processes to reduce duplicate efforts, and they get really excited about this kind of work.
To hear this level of information in a conversation almost always requires that you, as the listener, temporarily set aside your needs, beliefs, perceptions, past experiences, and ideas.
If you notice yourself making a list of what they have wrong, bristling at something they say, or thinking about rebuttals, it might help to actively look for what’s right or true about what they are saying.
Empathize with their needs and perspective
Once you’ve spent some time asking questions and listening, you can recap what you’re hearing about what matters most to them and what concerns them. This doesn’t mean you necessarily agree with everything they’ve said. Rather, it means you care enough to really work on understanding their perspective and take their needs into consideration.
When you can do this, they will feel more seen and respected than they have in any of the other 15 meetings they’ve had already today. This acknowledgement of what matters to them is one key that can shift the conversation from a battle of wills or resources to the collaborative, allied approach that you want to create.
Voice what matters to you
Until now you’ve been setting the scene and seeking to understand others’ needs, goals, worries, and limitations. This is collaborative and allied problem-solving, though, so your (or your department or team’s) perspective and goals matter just as much. Share the elements that you believe are important to consider, prioritize, or protect as you move forward together. It’s still too early to communicate any proposed solutions. (We’re almost there!) You can model communication of needs, priorities, and goals that will inform the solutioning process, and open yourself up to questions.
Move into solutioning together
Only now are you equipped with an understanding of the problem and its critical context. Now that it’s all on the table (or on the whiteboard – visuals can help), it’s time to begin identifying possible solutions that take into account the interests and perspectives of participating stakeholders.
You can kick this off with one of my favorite question starters: “How might we…?”
For example, you might ask, “How might we launch this update to market 3 weeks earlier than planned while sticking to the resourcing originally assigned to it?” As with this example, at first it can seem impossible that a viable solution exists.
Innovate
The “Yes… And” game is a great collaborative tool when you feel stuck in solutioning. The premise of this exercise is to respond to every idea with an affirmative statement of what you like about it, and then build on it or blurt out the first thing that previous idea spurred for you. Some of the ideas will be crazy, but that might just be the key to spotting the opportunity through the clouds.
Attribution:
This blog post incorporates my interpretation of ideas and practices from Liane Davey’s The Good Fight, and Shirzad Chamine’s Positive Intelligence. Check out their books for more, and get in touch if you want support practicing the behaviors and mindsets that make collaborative, allied problem-solving possible.
Cover Photo by Jason Goodman on Unsplash
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