Getting Unstuck

Like any good story, a meeting or workshop has a familiar shape over time. There's an opening, a middle and an end; some tension along the way. All of which is fine, as long as things keep moving.

But sometimes there's a sense that things get stuck. How do we move from stuckness to motion again?

One thing is for sure: talking about details is less interesting than talking about new ideas. Details – mechanics – are a necessary part of our lives. Yet thinking of human challenges in mechanical ways has limits, especially when we're stuck.

In her work “Immunity to Change”, Lisa Lahey defines two broad types of challenges. The first problem is a technical challenge. The solution is already known, and it can be solved by an expert, systems or procedures.

The second type of problem is an adaptive challenge. There is no known solution; answers lie in changes in people’s priorities, beliefs and habits.

If we treat an adaptive problem like a technical one, we're likely to see other opinions or beliefs like they’re problems to be solved. It’s not until we move back to a place of understanding human concerns that things can move forwards.

How do you view the world when things when things get stuck? What helps get things moving again?

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