Stop Solving Problems

In this episode, Bill and Ralph discuss the value of changing our thinking about the way we solve problems. When we think of problem-solving as polarity management  –  that is, managing two forces that are interdependent but seemingly opposite of one another, we can reap tremendous benefits for ourselves personally, and for our teams and organizations. Listen to learn more about the concept and get ideas about how you can introduce polarity management to your leadership.

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*Note: The following text is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors

Bill Berthel:

Welcome to the Get Emergent podcast where we discuss leadership team and organizational topics and best practices. We like to provide ideas, concepts, and pragmatic experiments to help you develop your potential in your work and leadership. I’m Bill Berthel.

Ralph Simone:

And I’m Ralph Simone.

Bill Berthel:

So we have a, I think a really important topic today of not solving problems, Ralph.

Ralph Simone:

Wait a minute, problem. What am I going to do?

Bill Berthel:

I think that is going to be the reaction to reading that title. I think that’s why people are tuning today because, and it’s really normal. It’s really, really normal. It makes sense. Most of us were educated and were conditioned to solve problems. Every test you took in school was to solve a problem, whether that was solving an equation in math or writing an essay, or basically solving a problem to make that condition even more sticky. Most of us are rewarded for our problem-solving abilities, and we’re proud to be problem-solvers. I can’t tell you how many leaders I talk to that say I’m an excellent problem solver and that’s wonderful. There are problems to be solved.

Ralph Simone:

Perhaps I was ahead of my time. I don’t think I did a lot of problem-solving in my early academic career.

Bill Berthel:

I think our listeners happen to have two guys talking to him that are good at this polarity management space, not solving problems, but really identifying when it’s not a problem to solve, but a set of polls to manage.

Ralph Simone:

What I’m surprised at, a couple things. One is, the terminology people are unfamiliar with most people we talk to, and secondly, can we give some examples? Because I think once we provide some examples of not solving a problem, but managing polarity, I think it comes to light for people and then I think they’re able to start to see some of their organizational challenges through a different lens.

Bill Berthel:

Absolutely. Absolutely. So this polarity management model is managing two forces that are interdependent, yet seemingly opposite of one another. A basic example, one of my favorite examples is breathing. So breathing consists of many biological activities, right? But let’s simplify breathing by focusing on inhaling and exhaling, right? Two interdependent forces, right? But very two opposite forces, right? Inhaling and exhaling. One way to test if they’re polar or opposite enough to fit this structure is attempt to do both at the same time. Go ahead, try it. Listeners, while you’re listening, try to inhale and exhale at the same time.

Ralph Simone:

Yeah, you can’t do that.

Bill Berthel:

You’re not doing it. No matter how you think you might be doing it, you’re not