The 2 questions that help you solve any problems

Dũng Huy Nguyễn

Although problems come to us in millions of different forms and levels, we can handle most of them much more effectively with the same 2 critical questions.

And you know what: we are already asking ourselves those 2 questions, all the time! However, we ask them implicitly, we subconsciously arrive at the answers without clear thinking, and we do not communicate them to others. In other words, we assume. And that is the root of so many problems at work, at home, everywhere.

Try this when you meet a problem next time: Explicitly ask, discuss, and clearly confirm two things: the Intention and Definition.

1. INTENTION - The WHY.

There are at least 3 major ways an explicit check on the perceived intention will help:

Correcting your own bad intention. Oh, I am putting some unnecessary passive aggressive comments here. Seems like I was trying to undermine my colleagues, instead of moving the work forward.

Realize wrong judgement on the intention of others. My husband did not put his dirty clothes in the basket, again! He does not care about me; he does not respect me. Really? Is it really his intention?

Avoid solving the wrong problem, going in the wrong direction. You were asked to give a training plan for your team members. Make sure to ask back about the real goal. Do they just want to clear the training budget? Or do they worry about a performance gap - and you can fix that with new hires or reallocation instead of training?

2. DEFINITION - The WHAT.

After the intention is clear and productive, make sure everyone shares the same definition of each important concept and, more importantly, what does success mean?

Do we have the same understanding of the terms? Uhm, before we debate on whether

great leaders are born or made⁠

, let us clarify, what does "great" mean for you? Before we discuss designing better pitch, what does a "good" pitch mean for you?

Define exactly what does Success means, and how to measure it OK, we want to improve team members' engagement at work. How will we know? Participant rates in events, surveys, social listening, or just "feel it"

These two questions ensure you have (1) the right motive and direction and (2) a shared understanding of expectations with others. With that, you are on track to solve any problems!

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