Problem Solving

[smg01]

Apropos of nothing at all, I'm curious. How do some of you approach unexpected problems and how does it work for you?

For example, when an unforeseen problem or crisis comes my way, I tend to freeze up a little bit. I'm not good at thinking on my feet and I'm often thrown off by unexpected problems. Particularly if other people are upset or angry because it makes it harder for me to think through a solution logically. I usually need to talk it out with someone. And even after that things have to percolate in my mind for awhile. A lot times I find that if I sleep on something, I'll wake up in the morning with a plan of action. Once I have a plan of action that seems reasonable, I start feeling better. And then once the plan of action works, I tend to look back and say "that wasn't so bad." But overall, I need to have discussion time and then some peace and quiet during which a solution often seems to come to me without my really realizing it. Suddenly pieces will just fall into place for me.

My boss, on the other hand, is really good at thinking on her feet. It's kind of interesting to watch. She might be kind of surprised by something that comes up, but I've watched her talk it through, and, in what seems like very short order, she'll have assessed a situation and come up with a response that solves the problem and/or defuses the situation. I'm a little better at that than I used to be. If I'm pretty familiar I am with all of the issues surrounding a given problem situation I can usually come up with an adequate way to respond, but I've really never been good at immediately cutting to the heart of an issue and figuring out the best way to deal with it on the spot. I've always been a little bit jealous of people who can do that.

Comments

[mircalla35.livejournal.com]

It totally depends. I don't think of myself as someone who thinks well on her feet -- usually I like to have the time and space to think something over thoroughly, fit in into the general scheme of things, and then come up with a plan. The problem is that, the more I think about a thing, the harder it becomes for me to make any sort of decision. I dither and dither and my thoughts go around and around and I become more and more anxious and paralysed. So in fact, I've always done better when something is *thrown* at me and I have no choice but to come up with a plan immediately and follow it through. I really work best in near-panic situations, which is weird because nothing frightens me more than the thought of near-panic situations.

I'm odd.

[suzannemarie.livejournal.com]

I second guess myself a lot. A lot of times I'll come up with what I think is the right decision, and I think it usually is. But the more I think about it, the more I'll have doubts. I'm just a terrible decision maker. (It's much easier to complain about the decisions that other people make!)

[mircalla35.livejournal.com]

Yeah,that's it. If I'm not given the opportunity to second-guess myself, I'm usually okay. But if I'm given any time to think things over, I'm like: "...well...we could do this...but maybe...no that's not right...okay, definitely we'll do it this way...although..." and it just goes on and on. It isn't pretty.

Complaining about other people's decisions is MUCH more fun. :)

[adrililith.livejournal.com]

It depends upon the situation for me as well. In general, though, I think my instinctive reaction is to immediately start trying to solve the problem. Sometimes this is good, as in limiting the amount of damage done, sometimes not so good as in I might have benefitted from thinking things through more slowly and thoroughly.

[kimexclaimation.livejournal.com]

I try to impose logic on all facets of my life. This generally means that I'm a very frustrated person, cause logic is a square peg that doesn't fit in all round holes... Anyhoo... when presented with an unexpected problem, I try to attack it logically. I try to see all possibilities and all potential solutions then go over pros and cons. Yeah, I know this sounds really cumbersome, but sometimes your possibilities and solutions are limited! I do also use other people as sounding boards. This has created problems at work because, for some reason, my supervisor thinks that when I ask questions, I'm stupid or have forgotten my training or am stupid. No, really, you should see my review. Anyhoo... Oh, one other thing I try to do is talk the problem to myself.