A Simple Strategy To Help Reframe How

You Deal With Challenges

With many of us now adapting to remote working as no longer a short-term response to the
COVID-19 pandemic, but as the ‘new normal’ for how our organization will function for the
next few years, there’s been more focus lately on how leaders and their employees are
adapting to this new work reality.

Some of the leadership virtual talks I’ve given recently have focused on leading within this
new reality, and one of the common themes that arose is how leaders are having to deal with
unexpected challenges brought forth by the global pandemic. As I pointed out in these
discussions, what’s needed here is for leaders to reframe how they view these challenges.
And with that in mind, I’d like to share a simple strategy for how you can do this.

In their book “The One Thing”, Gary Keller & Jay Papasan share this idea of how we can
become more effective by asking ourselves a single question, what they call a “focusing
question”, which will lead us to one of three kinds of answers – doable, stretch, or possibility.

In the context of understanding what kind of challenges we should be taking on, I’d like to
retool their concept of three kinds of answers as three archetypes of challenges all of us face
in our professional lives:
1. Doable challenges

These are challenges that – although having a certain level of difficulty – are nonetheless
ones we’re confident we can successfully overcome.

2. Stretch challenges

These are the challenges that we often talk about in the context of learning. Of pushing our
current skills or abilities in order to stretch them further and therefore, gain more use or value
from them.

3. Possibility challenges

These are those challenges that dare us to ponder ‘what if’. These are the challenges we often
tend to categorize under wishful thinking or being where the dreamers live. Consequently,
we tend to be dismissive about it not being worthwhile to expend any real effort to take them
on.

If we look at our everyday lives, it’s easy for us to see that the majority of the challenges we
tend to focus on are those doable challenges. These challenges fill are To-Do lists and make
us feel like we’re getting things done because, well, they’re challenging, but doable.

This is also what’s behind that collective sense of busyness that so many of us before
COVID-19 would refer to when we were asked “how’s it going?” Sure, this kind of challenge
can make us feel productive, but it also makes us feel like we’re just going through the
motions and not creating any real value or change.

That’s why so many of us begrudgingly welcome challenges that stretch us. That by taking
on stretch challenges, we know we’ll grow our strengths and push ourselves in order to
increase the value of what we contribute. And perhaps if pushed enough, we might also
increase our relevance in a world that’s continuing to evolve and change regardless of
whether we want it to.

While stretch challenges push us to re-evaluate how we view ourselves and what we can
contribute – of how we can make a difference – the truth is these stretch challenges are still
within that realm of what we ultimately know we’re capable of accomplishing. The only
difference between the doable and stretch challenges is that we don’t have the past experience
and consequently, the confidence to know that we can be successful in overcoming these
challenges.

And this leads us to the third type of challenges, possibility challenges. Those challenges that
bring to mind possibilities of ‘what if’. Possibility challenges push us into the realm of the
change makers and innovators. It’s those kinds of challenges that if we tell people we’re
thinking of taking them on, they might tell us that we’re crazy. Or they scoff at us and say
they’ll be waiting on the sidelines simply to tell us “I told you so”.

But possibility challenges also give rise to that collective awe and admiration for those
visionaries who are not willing to play it safe. Who push themselves outside their comfort
zone because their hopeful vision of the future is far greater than any concern over fears of
their inability to achieve it or worse, failing in the eyes of those around them.
The willingness to take on possibility challenges is what defines not only the best leaders, but
the very best of us – those people who weren’t willing to settle for the status quo because
they not only believed, but knew we could do better. And they pushed us – along with
themselves – to prove it.

Given our collective tendency to focus on doable challenges with the odd stretch challenge
sprinkled in, the efforts of these people might seem herculean and exceptional. And without
question they are.

But the truth is each of us has the potential to be exceptional. To take on challenges that
push us beyond our comfort zone in order to explore our own version of what if and
what could be [Share on Twitter]. We just have to make that subtle shift of not limiting
ourselves in terms of what we think we’re capable of.

And therein lies the necessary truth of finding purpose in our lives – our sense of purpose
not only informs us as to why we need to do something, but also gives us that internal
motivation to keep pressing ahead despite what obstacles stand in our way [Share on
Twitter].

And given all the problems we’re witnessing right now – not just in terms of the COVID-19
pandemic, but also in terms of environmental disasters and growing social divisions in
various countries – what your employees need more than ever is reconnecting with their why.
Of why their efforts matter and how their contributions are making a difference.

By reframing how you view challenges, you can move past that tendency to play it safe with
those doable challenges and focus more on those stretch challenges to ensure your
organization doesn’t simply survive this global pandemic, but comes out stronger in the end.

And hopefully, you’ll be encouraged to aim for one of those possibility challenges so that
your efforts move beyond incremental improvement to igniting transformative change that
will lead to that better, brighter future we all so desperately need to see shining in our
collective horizon.