How your team shows up for work is key to knowing if you are solving the right problems. If the team is enthusiastically arriving to work, exceptionally resilient when faced with obstacles, generally productive, meeting deadlines with minimal overtime and taking their personal time regularly, you are likely solving the right problems.

If there is a sense of low energy at work and regularly missed workdays, roadblocks of any size stall the work and deadlines are often missed or require overtime; you may be solving the wrong problem.

When I hear things like “I’ve tried everything,” “We’ve changed so many things, and it’s still the same,” or “Nothing gets done around here,” it is usually a sign of the underlying needs of individuals or the team being addressed with a quick fix or surface solutions.

For example, someone might say, “I have too many tasks to meet the deadlines.”

The surface solution may be to remove 1 or 2 tasks. But, after the tasks are removed, the deadlines are still being missed, leaving you completely perplexed - you solved the problem, but it didn’t work. To make things even more complicated, someone else took on the additional tasks and is now overwhelmed and missing their deadlines. This can add a sprinkling of resentment on top of it all.

Having 2 or 3 or 5 of these situations in a team can quickly lead to frustrated people and add up to a loss of revenue for the business.  

So, what can you do?

Start with getting curious about the situation.

Is a lengthy task list really the problem? What could be under that long task list? What else could be true?

It can also be helpful to replace the question “what’s the problem?” with “what are the needs?”  

Implied and Explicit Needs

There are two kinds of needs in any situation: the EXPLICIT need(s) and the IMPLICIT need(s). 

By ensuring you have identified both, you can come up with a solid solution and move forward while building long-term resilience, improving productivity, and, most importantly, increasing general happiness at work.

Knowing the difference between explicit and implicit needs helps you put out fewer fires and instead add more oxygen to the workplace. Adding oxygen gives more breathing room for individuals to gather their own clarity in any situation and helps them move forward in the decision-making process with you.

‘Explicit’ Meaning

Explicit denotes being very clear and complete without vagueness, implication, or ambiguity. When something is said to be explicit, there is no question as to what is being expressed or conveyed—nothing is implied or assumed.

‘Implicit’ Meaning

Implicit denotes that something is understood, although not clearly, directly expressed, or conveyed—there is an implication, assumption, or question. It often precedes a preposition, usually in and less frequently from, with, or within.

Merriam-Webster dictionary

Focusing only on explicit needs may have you playing wac-a-mole with one problem after another popping up. If you stay curious about the less obvious implicit needs and validate assumptions, you’ll be able to have honest conversations and uncover real solutions. It means taking the time to confirm what you heard: “If your task list was shorter, would you be able to meet the deadline?” Asking for more insight: “Is there a specific task taking up a lot of your time?” 

And leave enough space for another option to be considered: “Is there anything else getting in the way?”

Listen to more than the words when asking these questions. Pay attention to the tone of voice, body language and even the silences. Keep asking, listening and confirming what you hear before jumping into the solution part of your brain.   

In the example above, the direct request is fewer tasks.  

“Too many tasks” could be because a teammate has been off for a week and their work needs doing.

Possbile Solution: A short-term problem. Distributing the other teammate’s tasks may be the solution.

Or learning the skills required to complete the job is an assumed part of the task, but the time has not been allocated for the learning.  

Possible Solution: This could be a system issue where learning needs to be built into project timelines, or some tasks may be better outsourced if a particular skill is required.

It could be something more subtle, like not prioritizing the task as relevant or important compared to the other tasks.  

Possible Solution: Context or clarity might have to be given as to why this task is important. Or maybe reflection - is it an important task?

Finding what is underneath an obvious problem is not always easy and can take more time and effort upfront, but it almost always saves time in the future. Especially when it is a recurring problem like missing deadlines, and none of the solutions have worked until now.

Really understanding the individual and collective needs of those who make up the business builds a team that can face situations with confidence and creativity. Having a team who are resilient, productive and happy at work = a sustainable and impactful business.

Inspired by: 

The book Middleshift by Vince Thompson