How to know when you are stuck in the weeds
Have you ever wondered how to know when it's time to ‘pop up' out of the weeds so you can see the big picture?
A number of people in the program have asked this question and a December working session focused on the issue in a way that is useful to all of you.
The key takeaway was that if you find yourself going really deep on one section of an issue before clarifying the top level you need to come back up.
This is particularly so when building issue and hypothesis trees when problem solving. There is a tendency to go and ‘do the analysis' to answer a question while the ideas are fresh and run the risk that we have spent significant energy doing the wrong analysis.
We also risk wasting effort if we dive in too deep when preparing our communication. We aren't always clear on what the messaging should be in a section of a story before we know what the high-level story is like for the whole thing.
This means that we can prepare pages in packs and papers that end up being redundant because we ‘chased a rabbit' down a hole.
So, here are some ideas to help you ‘stay out of the rabbit warrens'
- Take a look at the recording. Click here to access.
- The topic is simple and interesting (addressing an employee shortage in a US County) and illustrates very clearly the problem.
- It offers a chance to refresh or perhaps dig into the problem solving concepts in the Clarity in Problem Solving course.
- Stick to building your one-page storylines before building your papers or packs
- Go a step further and ‘hack' the high-level storylines before you get to building your one-pager. There is room for this in the storyline planner, and plenty of examples in the recorded sessions of this strategy at work.
I hope that helps and look forward to checking in again next week.
Kind regards,
Davina
PS – Don't forget to get a copy of Bill's Book, Building a Winning Career so you can contribute to the discussion during the mid January and early February working sessions.