Something just isn’t going right: Show
You’re trying to make dinner at a residential program and the stove won’t light… You’ve gotten in the agency vehicle to take a client to a medical appointment and the vehicle won’t start… You’re supposed to work in a particular office that is usually open and the door is locked… So, what do you do? You’re probably not the official stove lighter, or mechanic, or key-holder. What you don’t want to do is go to your boss and just say, “The stove won’t light” or “The car won’t start.” That’s just dumping the problem on someone else. This is not the way you want to present yourself in the workplace. You probably looked to see if the stove’s pilot light was on. You probably at least checked that the lights worked in the car even if it wouldn’t start. Since you’ve done these things, you can go to your boss and say, “I’m trying to make dinner and the stove won’t light. It looks like the pilot light is off. I’m not sure how to light it. If someone can tell me I’ll be happy to do it. If we need to call someone, I’ll go see what I can do for dinner that we can heat in the microwave so we won’t need the stove.” Now you’re a problem-solverYou didn’t just dump the problem in your supervisor’s lap. She may or may not know how to light the pilot light. Even if you didn’t solve the problem of the stove not lighting, you’re taking on making dinner without the need for the stove. You’ve made yourself an active part of the solution and have shown yourself in a very good light. This is the way you should report any problem at work. Report it, but proactively be part of the solution. You’ll want to have given the situation some thought first. Maybe you’ve already solved it. Then you can just report the problem and the solution. (Or, depending on the scenario, you might not need to report it at all.) I recently got an email from a staff member who supervises several other employees. She mentioned that certain staff weren’t doing what they were supposed to do. She just left it at that. Just dumped it in my lap. She is the supervisor of the people she is complaining about. I will be happy to help her think about how to handle the problem. But her making it my problem without any effort on her part makes me more concerned about her performance than that of the staff she is complaining about. Being an active part of the solution is important in all aspects of your work lifeFor example, suppose your home situation has changed and you need a different schedule in order to get to work on time. You’ve been late for the past couple of days and you realize it’s becoming a problem for your workplace. Be proactive. Don’t wait for your boss to bring up your lateness. Instead, ask to speak with him. Apologize for your tardiness and explain what steps you are taking to solve the issue. If a schedule change is really the only way to solve the problem, then say so. But be sure you have thought this through and are not creating different problems for yourself and your employer. This is not a conversation you want to have twice. If you are always a proactive problem solver, you will be more likely to get the new schedule that you need. Being unable to accommodate a requested schedule change is an easy and legitimate way to get rid of an employee who is not perceived as doing a good job. If, however, you demonstrate these proactive problem-solving skills on a regular basis, your employer will want to keep you and will be more likely to work with you to make it possible for you to stay. Stay out of the dramaIt doesn’t matter where you work. There is always someone creating unnecessary drama by constantly complaining, not doing their job, picking arguments with colleagues, and other foolishness. (To see if you have a problem with your attitude at work, read this post.) You’re much better off just staying away from these people. They’re only wasting your time and energy and their negativity will affect you sooner or later. If you get sucked in to this nonsense, you won’t be the proactive problem-solver that you need to be if you want to get ahead at work. If you ever feel that the way to solve a problem at work is to get loud, storm out, or write an email accusing someone of anything at all, STOP. This is a clear sign that you need to take a break. Right now. I had a staff member approach me to say she needed to change sites because she had just come back from a vacation trip with another staff member and they had gotten into a fight while on vacation. She didn’t think they could work together safely. The other staff member approached me with a similar request. I did give them separate assignments that evening, but they lost all credibility. If your personal life is such that you can’t work with someone because you are afraid that you or they are going to get violent, on the job, then you need to hang out with different people. That was completely inappropriate to bring up at work. Get into problem-solving modeWhen we’re nervous or upset, our problem-solving skills suffer. If you are faced with a problem at work (or anywhere else) that you don’t know how to handle: It’s natural to feel nervous when faced with something we don’t know how to handle. Just breathe for a minute. What actually has to be taken care of right now? In the scenario at the beginning of this post, the stove wouldn’t light. That is the problem. But why is it a problem? Because you need to make dinner. So, you either need the stove to work or you need another way to provide dinner. Instead of saying, “The stove won’t light,” which you may or may not be able to fix right away, say something like, “I need to figure out how to serve dinner without using the stove.” Now you have options. If you’ve just defined the problem as the stove not working, then you’ve limited your problem-solving abilities to either learning stove-repair or finding someone who can fix it. If it’s dinner time, you might not be able to find someone until the next day. If you’ve defined the problem as needing to provide dinner, now you have some options:
Now you’re probably not as stressed and begin to solve the problem (i.e. providing dinner) Don’t worry about your solution being wrongMaybe the supervisor knows all about lighting the pilot light on the stove and you didn’t need to have come up with ways to provide dinner without the stove. You still did a great job. I would much rather work with, and promote, someone who is willing to take a proactive approach to solving problems. Your solution will be the best one next time.
Some people see problems as roadblocks, others see them as opportunities! Problem-solving activities are a great way to get to know how members of your team work, both individually and together. It’s important to teach your team strategies to help them quickly overcome obstacles in the way of achieving project goals. The importance of problem-solving skills in today’s workplaceAccording to a 2019 report by McKinsey, soft skills are increasingly important in today's world — and problem-solving is the top area in which skills are lacking. A company or team’s success weighs heavily on the willingness of managers to help employees improve their problem-solving abilities. Team building activities targeting focus areas like communication and collaboration, adaptability, or strengthening decision-making techniques help. All problem-solving processes start with identifying the problem. Next, the team must assess potential courses of action and choose the best way to tackle the problem. This requires a deep understanding of your team and its core strengths. A problem-solving exercise or game helps identify those strengths and builds problem-solving skills and strategies while having fun with your team.
Problem-solving games aren't for just any team. Participants must have an open mind and accept all ideas and solutions. They must also have an Agile mindset and embrace different structures, planning, and processes. Problems usually arise when we least expect them, so there's no better way to prepare than to encourage agility and flexibility. Another aspect to keep in mind when engaging in problem-solving games and activities: There are no winners or losers. Sure, some games might end with a single winner, but the true goal of these exercises is to learn how to work together as a team to develop an Agile mindset. The winning team of each game should share their strategies and thought processes at the end of the exercise to help everyone learn. Here’s a list of fun problem-solving activity examples to try with your team. From blindfolds to raw eggs, these problem-solving, team-building activities will have your team solving problems faster than Scooby and the gang.
Helps with: Adaptability Why adaptability is important for problem-solving: Adaptability is highly associated with cognitive diversity, which helps teams solve problems faster, according to the Harvard Business Review. Innovation and disruption are happening faster than ever before. People, teams, and organizations that can adapt will come out on top. What you’ll need: Instructions: 1. Using the rope, make a shape on the floor everyone can fit into. 2. Slowly shrink the space over 10-15 minutes. 3. Work together to figure out how to keep everyone within the shrinking boundaries. 2. Marshmallow Spaghetti TowerHelps with: Collaboration Why collaboration is important for problem-solving: “Collectively, we can be more insightful, more intelligent than we can possibly be individually,” writes Peter Senge in The Fifth Discipline. We can solve problems better as a team than we can alone, which means developing your team’s collaboration skills will lead to better problem-solving outcomes. What you’ll need (per team):
Instructions: 1. The goal of this exercise is to see which team can use the materials provided to build the tallest tower within an allotted time period. The tower must be able to stand on its own. 2. To make this exercise more challenging, try adding a marshmallow to the top of the tower. This team problem-solving exercise helps people think on their toes while building camaraderie and leadership. 3. Egg DropHelps with: Collaboration, decision-making Why decision-making is important for problem-solving: Making decisions isn’t easy, but indecision leads to team paralysis, stagnant thinking, and unsolved problems. Decision-making activities help your team practice making quick, effective choices. Train your team’s decision-making muscles and they will become more adept at problem-solving. What you’ll need:
Instructions: 1. Each team gets an egg and must select from the construction materials. 2. Give everyone 20-30 minutes to construct a carrier for the egg and protect it from breaking. 3. Drop each egg carrier off a ledge (i.e. over a balcony) and see whose carrier protects the egg from breaking. 4. If multiple eggs survive, keep increasing the height until only one egg is left. 4. StrandedHelps with: Communication, decision-making Why communication is important for problem-solving: More employees work remotely than ever before. Good communication skills are vital to solving problems across virtual teams. Working on communication skills while your team is together will help them solve problems more effectively when they’re apart. What you’ll need: Here's the setting: Your team has been stranded in the office. The doors are locked, and knocking down the doors or breaking the windows is not an option. Give your team 30 minutes to decide on ten items in the office they need for survival and rank them in order of importance. The goal of the game is to have everyone agree on the ten items and their rankings in 30 minutes.
Helps with: Communication What you'll need: Instructions: 1. Divide everyone into small teams of two or more. 2. Select an overseer who isn't on a team to build a random structure using Lego building blocks within ten minutes. 3. The other teams must replicate the structure exactly (including size and color) within 15 minutes. However, only one member from each group may look at the original structure. They must figure out how to communicate the size, color, and shape of the original structure to their team. 4. If this is too easy, add a rule that the member who can see the original structure can't touch the new structure. 6. EscapeHelps with: Collaboration What you’ll need:
Instructions: 1. The goal of this exercise is to solve the clues, find the key, and escape a locked room within the time allotted. 2. Hide the key and a list of clues around the room. 3. Gather the team into the empty room and "lock" the door. 4. Give them 30 minutes to an hour to find the key using the clues hidden around the room. 7. FrostbiteHelps with: Decision-making, adaptability What you’ll need:
Instructions: Your employees are Arctic explorers adventuring across an icy tundra! Separate them into teams of four or five and have them select a leader to guide their exploration. Each team must build a shelter from the materials provided before the storm hits in 30 minutes. However, both the team leader’s hands have frostbite, so they can’t physically help construct the shelter, and the rest of the team has snow blindness and is unable to see. When the 30 minutes is up, turn on the fan and see which shelter can withstand the high winds of the storm. 8. MinefieldHelps with: Communication What you’ll need:
Instructions: 1. Place the items (boxes, chairs, water bottles, bags, etc.) around the room so there's no clear path from one end of the room to the other. 2. Divide your team into pairs and blindfold one person on the team. 3. The other must verbally guide that person from one end of the room to the other, avoiding the "mines." 4. The partner who is not blindfolded can't touch the other. 5. If you want to make the activity more challenging, have all the pairs go simultaneously so teams must find ways to strategically communicate with each other. 9. Blind FormationsHelps with: Communication What you'll need: Instructions: 1. Have the group put on blindfolds and form a large circle. 2. Tie two ends of a rope together and lay it in a circle in the middle of the group, close enough so each person can reach down and touch it. 3. Instruct the group to communicate to create a shape with the rope — a square, triangle, rectangle, etc. 4. If you have a very large group, divide them into teams and provide a rope for each team. Let them compete to see who forms a particular shape quickest.
Helps with: Communication What you'll need: Instructions: 1. Blindfold everyone and whisper a number to each person, beginning with one. 2. Tell them to line up in numerical order without talking. 3. Instead of giving them a number, you could also have them line up numerically by height, age, birthday, etc. 11. Reverse PyramidHelps with: Adaptability, collaboration What you'll need: Instructions: 1. Have everyone stand in a pyramid shape, horizontally. 2. Ask them to flip the base and the apex of the pyramid moving only three people. 3. This quick exercise works best when smaller groups compete to see who can reverse the pyramid the fastest. 12. Move It!Helps with: Adaptability, collaboration What you'll need:
Instructions: 1. Divide your group into two teams and line them up front to back, facing each other. 2. Using the chalk, tape, rope, or paper (depending on the playing surface), mark a square space for each person to stand on. Leave one extra empty space between the two facing rows. 3. The goal is for the two facing lines of players to switch places. 4. Place these restrictions on movement:
13. Human KnotHelps with: Adaptability, collaboration What you'll need: Instructions: 1. Have everyone stand in a circle, and ask each person to hold hands with two people who aren’t directly next to them. 2. When everyone is tangled together, ask them to untangle the knot and form a perfect circle — without letting go of anyone's hand. Our last two problem-solving activities work best when dealing with an actual problem: 14. Dumbest Idea FirstHelps with: Instant problem-solving What you'll need: Instructions: 1. "Dumb" ideas are sometimes the best ideas. Ask everyone to think of the absolute dumbest possible solution to the problem at hand. 2. After you have a long list, look through it and see which ones might not be as dumb as you think. 3. Brainstorm your solutions in Wrike. It's free and everyone can start collaborating instantly! 15. What Would X DoHelps with: Instant problem-solving What you'll need: Instructions: 1. Have everyone pretend they're someone famous. 2. Each person must approach the problem as if they were their chosen famous person. What options would they consider? How would they handle it? 3. This allows everyone to consider solutions they might not have thought of originally. Looking for more team-building and virtual meeting games? Check out these virtual icebreaker games or our Ultimate Guide to Team Building Activities that Don't Suck.
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