Can't and How

A usual work day across the world, deadlines, issues, concerns etc. etc. We are always battling these with teams, users, customers and so on. What I have seen is whenever there is a paradigm shift that is proposed for issues or for an action plan that calls for extremely tight timelines the usual answer is "It Can't be done".

Whenever I lead a team, I coach them to think a little differently and instead of saying "It Can't Be Done" they should say "How Can It Be Done".

The problem is saying "It Can't Be Done" is more than a statement - it limits one's ability to think beyond. People always forget - the human mind is capable of great things however we end up locking the capabilities by saying "It Can't be done".

As a leader, it is our responsibility to coach the team to think beyond their capability. How do you go about it? There is no cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all methodology however what I have see that works is just pushing the team to think of a a more holistic picture of the problem and how the decision would impact the overall solution. This more-or-less gets the creative juices going because the team is at least made aware that by saying "It Can't Be Done" the impact to the overall solution is more greater than the problem at hand. The team begins to think on how to minimize the impact to the overall project and that is what it takes them to turn round the corner from "It Can't Be Done" to "How Can It Be Done".

So, the next time around, you are hit by an issue, before you accept "It Can't Be Done", ask yourself, how do I explain the bigger picture to the team because the solution is out there. Think about it.