Some problems just never seem to get solved. We talk about them repeatedly. Another problem may hold our attention for a time, and then we circle back to the old problem.
This is when you need to ask yourself this question: “Are we having the conversation we need to have, or the conversation we want to have?”
You’ll find that we often want to have conversations which by design can’t lead to a solution because:
- We might be held accountable for a result
- We don’t like the changes we ourselves would have to make
- There is a long effort required before we would experience benefits
- We would prefer to get the credit for a solution but don’t want to take any risks
- It’s frankly more fun to complain about “them” or “that”
Stronger leaders move away from these “want to have” conversations to invest more time in “need to have” conversations.
