As a manager, you are often faced with a problem to solve. And, you think, if I could just get my team involved, there are some benefits. Team problem solving –

• Communicates the accountability to the team
• Brings in a diversity of fresh ideas
• Brings in ideas that can be combined with other ideas
• Challenges the team to contribute their best thinking
• Brings in other perspectives on what the real problem is
• Surfaces additional “what if” scenarios
• Speeds execution of the solution

So, why don’t we get our team involved more often?

• We don’t have time
• Our team members are already overworked
• Our team members are too busy to attend a problem solving meeting
• It’s not their problem

Our objections are just head-trash. Every time the manager solves a problem for the team, it cripples the team from engaging in problem-solving behavior.

The team still needs a guide. And when you float the problem, they will resist, at first they will panic. Your job, as a manager, is to simply outlast the panic. If you want to build a team, give them a real problem to solve. -Tom