“The thought that disaster is impossible often leads to an unthinkable disaster.”
Gerald M. Weinberg
Modern managers want to encourage teams and team members to solve problems
on their own, they ask them to come prepared with solutions, not just problems.
Sometime this goes too far, and I hear managers full of good intentions saying “Don't bring me
problems, bring me
solutions!”
Team members don’t bring to their managers obstacles that they know how to fix and believe they can solve.
They approach their managers with obstacles that:
- they don’t know how to solve
- they need some help to solve
- they don’t have the organisational influence and authority to solve
- are more than problems to solve, are directions that need to change
Esther Derby suggests that ignoring that facts, forces problems underground and makes failure more likely. I've seen that happen many times.
Continue reading
how managers can help.