When was the last time you, you and your colleagues, or maybe you and your spouse got caught up in solving a problem that was unsolvable or not worth solving in the first place? Let’s talk about both for a couple of minutes. Last winter, our furnace quit on us. It just stopped working. Like most people, I hate calling repair people because it is an unexpected expense and many times costly. I’m a mechanical kind of guy and understand how furnaces work. But diagnosing one that has simply stopped is outside of my expertise.
My wife and I started to stew about it. What could be wrong? How long will it take to get someone to look at it? It’s only three years old. It’s already cold in the house and getting colder. We could buy space heaters, but we’re only going need them this one time. Then what do we do with them? And on and on and on. After a couple of hours of this, we both looked at each other and said “Life’s too short,” and I called the people who had installed the furnace. In the meantime, we probably fell further back in line to get our furnace fixed on a freezing day. Lesson learned.
Then there are the problems that aren’t worth solving. I have spent the past 35 years serving as a volunteer leader in a number of associations. If you have served in these capacities, you know that inevitably board and committee meetings can devolve into discussions such as what kinds of snacks to serve at the next meeting. On one hand, I have watched some leaders struggle to corral these kinds of diversions only to let them go on and sometimes devolve even further into a debate about whether the salad dressing should be placed on the table or drizzled on the salad beforehand.
On the other hand, I have watched with fascination as a leader will diplomatically take charge of these distractions, assign the decision to someone and get us back on track. Is there a moment of discomfort or awkwardness as this is done? Sometimes. But how many times are we held back by not wanting to speak up or offend someone without knowing if that will really happen if we do? Sure, diplomacy is needed, we can spend a lot of time on stuff that doesn’t need to be debated.
One of my long-time mantras has been “Life’s too short.” While I occasionally lose sight of it, as in the furnace situation for a couple of hours, it has saved me countless hours and lots of energy by adopting this attitude when faced unsolvable or nonsense problems. How about you?