Strengthening Resilience Quotient: Problem-Solving Techniques for Personal and Professional Success

Julie South [00:00:05]:

You're listening to the Vetstaff podcast, the place where you, the veterinary professional, can go to get your head screwed on straight so you can get excited about going to work on Monday mornings and be the most fantabulous version of you you can be. I'm your show host, Julie South, and this is episode one six four. And we're continuing today with part eight on developing one of your superpowers, your resilience quotient. Today we're going to be looking at problem solving. We're looking at the types of questions you can ask yourself and others to give both greater clarity and creativity in looking at problems. The Rise Above framework gives you the tools you need to help you grow and develop your problem solving capabilities, which in turn will strengthen your resiliency quotient. We take some real life examples on how you can use the Rise Above framework to problem solve in a meaningful and a creative way for best potential outcome resilience. Life works much better when we have it, even when we don't actually need to use it.

Julie South [00:01:29]:

Right now, fortitude call it whatever you want, and think of it as a muscle, one that lets you flex, bend and bounce forward no matter what life and or work throws at you. For when you have those pear shaped events going on in your life, it's the gritty grace under pressure. It's the inner strength that keeps you steady when the going gets tough. And if you've ever wondered what makes some people bounce forward from setbacks stronger than ever before, while others crumble, need medication, and or fall apart, well, it's resilience. Or have you ever perhaps felt like you're just one stressor away from burning out or melting down? What if you could learn a skill and add a tool to your toolbox that you can dip into to prevent those stressor meltdown moments? Well, there is. It's called resilience. And it can be both learned and strengthened and used whichever way you need it. Okay.

Julie South [00:02:42]:

Problem solving. What on earth has it got to do with being more resilient? Good question. I'm so pleased you asked. Here are a few ways that being good at problem solving can help strengthen your resilience. Firstly, it builds confidence. Regularly solving problems means that you gain experience and skills that you wouldn't have built otherwise. This, in turn, naturally I'm sure you got this already helps boost your self efficacy and the self belief that you've got what it takes to work through challenges. Those pear shaped events.

Julie South [00:03:22]:

The more problems you solve, the more resilient you become. You also become more adaptable. Some problems need thinking in ways you don't normally think or you don't normally think about in ways that you wouldn't normally look at. When you can analyze out of the norm situations, when you can think creatively and try on different solutions, you develop greater cognitive flexibility as well. It gives you greater ability to adjust your approaches. In turn, this adaptability makes it easier for you to cope with new problems, and you learn perseverance. Solving tough problems takes effort and perseverance, which may be a little bit tricky for when we live in this right now, right now world. Sometimes we don't want to wait, we don't want to persevere.

Julie South [00:04:23]:

We don't want to push through challenges or try again when things don't work as we intended. But with perseverance, we actually learn to see problems through. And perseverance builds persistence, which builds grit. And these are essential components of resilience. Problem solving also gives you opportunities for growth. Problems force us all out of our comfort zones and into our challenge or growth zones at some time in our life. At some point in our life. When we overcome difficulties, it stretches our abilities.

Julie South [00:05:04]:

In turn, these small wins accumulate to build hardiness and yes, you guessed it, resilience. And probably something that you hadn't thought of. How about connection with other humans? Some problems are just too big for us to handle by ourselves, to handle solo. So we need to seek out help. And when we collaborate with others and ask for support and actually allow that support in, it can help our problem solving, whilst at the same time it builds social resilience because we get more meaningful, or we have and start and form more meaningful human relationships. So, in other words, when we regularly exercise our problem solving chops, it allows us to develop important mental resources like confidence, adaptability, perseverance, and human connections. When we strengthen these personal capabilities, it makes it easier to endure, recover, and then bounce forward. When those pear shaped events hit us upside of the head, out of the blue, and disrupt our lives.

Julie South [00:06:26]:

When you're up to your neck in alligators and one of life's pear shaped events, you need to assess the mess first. This means asking good questions, taking stock, asking good questions so that you can problem solve with panache. Let's look at five whys first. I'm sure you've heard about the five whys. But just in case you need a little bit of a memory nudge back in the 1930s, a very clever fellow named Sakichi Toyota was trying to improve efficiency at his Toyota plants in Japan. Whenever an issue popped up on those production lines, Sakichi would ask himself, why did that happen? He would ask, Why did that happen? Five whole times in a row, with the wording slightly changed. With each why, he dug deeper beneath the surface problem. The first answers would usually blame the worker or a machine, or another worker or a machine.

Julie South [00:07:39]:

But by the fifth why? The root cause was usually something much sneakier, like flaws in process designs or something like that. Something a bit hidden. Sakechi realized that when he fixed those underlying problems surprise, surprise, his factories ran smoother than a hairless sphinx. His five wise worked magic without fail. Before long, all Toyota bigwigs like Taichi Ono were asking why why when trouble came knocking and ain't no troubles stand a chance against such persistent questioning. So let's have a look at how five whys might work in real life. Let's say you've been feeling stressed and overwhelmed lately, that your life maybe feels totally out of control. Which isn't surprising considering that as I'm recording this, we are heading into Christmas and that's always a bit of a stressful time and a crazy time.

Julie South [00:08:46]:

The first why might be something like why have I been feeling so stressed, overwhelmed and feeling out of control lately? The answer could be I've taken on too many responsibilities and overcommitted myself. Why have I taken on too much and overcommitted? I have difficulty in saying no when asked to help with other things or other people. Why do I have difficulty saying no? Because I want people to like me and see me as helpful. Why is being liked and helpful so important to me? I struggle with low self esteem and want external validation. Why do I have low self esteem? I judge my self worth too much based on productivity and achievements rather than my genuine value. Hypothetically speaking, when I repeatedly investigated why, why am I stressed and feeling out of control? Using this five Whys root cause analysis, I hypothetically uncovered that my problem with overcommitting and feeling overwhelmed stems from low self esteem. It's got nothing to do with Christmas. Perhaps that's at the top level, that's a superficial thing.

Julie South [00:10:11]:

So this then shifts the low self esteem. It then shifts my understanding to recognizing that I need to work on my self validation rather than just trying to be better, get better at saying no. Saying no more often obviously will help, but unless I work on my self esteem problem first, it's just going to repeat and repeat and repeat and guess what? Repeat again. So in this hypothetical situation, the five Whys helps diagnose the underlying the root cause personal barriers I need to overcome to bring about meaningful and therefore lasting change. So that's a five Whys framework. Now let's look at the Rise Above framework for great problem solving. The Rise Above framework is designed to help you ask good questions. Yes, another anagram.

Julie South [00:11:15]:

The reason is because anagrams work and they help you and me remember and recall. So we have Rise Above riseabove and that looks like recognize, investigate, shifts as in perspective, examine, assess, bravely, take action, optimize, verify, and equip under each of those top level headings. Now let's have a look at the purpose or the razondat for each of these components and then the questions that you can ask to help you problem solve better. First is recognize the challenge. R recognize the challenge and that's designed. Its purpose is to identify and define the problem or the opportunity so that you have clarity and alignment on the challenge at hand. It's no good working on a problem when it's not actually the root problem. You end up going down somewhere that you didn't mean to go and wasting a whole bunch of time.

Julie South [00:12:24]:

So firstly, recognize the challenge and therefore ask questions like what is the core difficulty or setback here? Who or what does this impact and how? And then what emotional response in you and maybe others is arising and why? I investigate the causes. The purpose with this one is to uncover the root causes and understand why the issue is happening before you solve it. So you're treating the cause, not just the symptom here. What events or factors could have contributed to this situation arising? Is it an isolated incident or is it part of a broader pattern? In other words, have you seen this before? Is it one of those here we go again type incidences? And how did this realistically, unfold, step by step S shift your perspective here? We want to reframe to spark creative solutions. So start by asking yourself what assumptions are you making about this issue? How might this appear from different vantage points? So, if necessary, actually physically change where you're standing when you're looking at this problem, if that's possible, because it really does give you a different perspective. And then what are you failing? Ask yourself what are you failing to see right now? Look at things with different eyes. E examine Options what we want here is to explore potential ways for you to respond and or give yourself viable solutions. So what are some of the question? What are some of the potential ways you could respond to this question, this situation, whatever it is.

Julie South [00:14:29]:

What alternatives haven't been explored before? You're getting creative here and what would flexibility look like if you looked at something different? Or if you took a different path? How flexible would you need to be? And what might that look like? A above assess trade offs what you're doing here is you're weighing up and you're evaluating the pros and cons and the feasibility of each proposed solution that you might come up with. So what are the pros and cons of each option? Do the options address the root causes and not just the symptom? And can the solutions be tested or simulated? First b bravely act here. The purpose is to take the first step forward and manifest courage towards progress. First question to ask is what is the first step forward? Because you don't want to go backwards and you don't want to go sideways, what is the first forward step you can take towards progress, towards making progress? Who or what resources can assist you in or through the process? And how might you manifest, how might you show courage right now, even if you're not feeling it? If you hypothetically imagined what courage might look like for you, then how can you make that happen? Because sometimes we have to fake it till we make it. Optimize. Oh, optimize learning. What we want to do here is extract lessons and principles to inform better choices. So what lessons, insights, or principles arise from this experience? What's happening right now? How will those lessons inform better choices going forward? In other words, what can you learn from this so you don't have to have another here we go again type moment? And then what personal or systemic improvements would be wise to implement again to avoid the Here we go again scenario V Almost There v Verify Progress.

Julie South [00:17:00]:

The purpose here is to check in and make sure that the steps that you're taking or have taken are actually improving the situation as you intended. Is it going where you thought it was going to go? Or have you gone somewhere way off? Like, how on earth did this happen? So you need to verify your progress. And are the steps you're taking improving the situation? What feedback do you have or are you getting that suggests that maybe you need to make adjustments and they might be just as required as needed? Or are they hitting you upside of the head and suggesting that you actually look at what you're doing? And is the root cause actually being resolved pointless if you're doing all this work only to find yourself back at the beginning again? And then finally the last e is to equip yourself. You want to make sure that you're building knowledge, skills, and the tools to bring about growth and resilience. So you've got to recognize where you're at. What knowledge, skills, or tools would be better to equip you for the future. How can you encourage growth in areas for yourself or for others, perhaps, that need development? And what resources are out there that might support you in growing your own resilience? Let's just do a quick recap of those first so we have recognize, rise above. Recognize, investigate, shift your perspective, examine options, assess the trade offs.

Julie South [00:18:51]:

Bravely take action, optimize your learning, verify your progress, and equip yourself. Rise above. I hope that helped. So let's just have a quick look of what that rise above. Because it's all well and good in theory, right? So what does it look like in real life? Well, let's take a situation where perhaps you and your partner, your spouse, husband, wife, significant other, which is quite understandable right now with coming into Christmas as I'm recording this, where maybe you've just been a little bit niggly with each other. Things aren't how they used to be. So the first one is recognize. It might look like my partner and I, my husband and I, my spouse, and why my wife and I have been arguing constantly over minor issues, and it's putting strain on our relationship.

Julie South [00:19:51]:

I can define the core issue as frequent conflicts that actually threaten the health of our marriage. Investigate. This is when you say that you look back and you reflect on when the bickering started. You realize that it coincided with work stresses that were mountain for both of you. You also recognize your investigation recognizes that perhaps you haven't dedicated quality time to connect with each other lately. Shifting your Perspective you want to consider how that might look like from your partner's perspective. How could your irritability damage the feelings of intimacy that you actually want in your relationship, and stress at work likely fuels tensions at home. Examine some of the options that you could examine.

Julie South [00:20:48]:

For example, might be scheduling, making regular date nights, pursuing counseling if you need to, finding strategies to better manage work anxiety. Do you need to put boundaries in place? Or identifying projects or hobbies that you can enjoy together? Assess this is when you can look at weighing the time commitment and the potential effectiveness of each of the approach that you might have considered to restore the understanding between you. Bravely act this is always you got to step out in faith, especially in relationships, to make yourself vulnerable. So bravely act it could look like I initiate an open talk about how we both want to stem this conflict pattern to make our relationship to thrive. Optimize I learn that staying connected requires ongoing effort, and I can't neglect the bond between the two of us even in busy times. Verify I pay attention over the next few months if we argue less frequently and tackle disagreements more constructively and equip I research communication strategies for Deescalation and look into workshops focused on relationship health, so I hope that's helped with how it might look in real life. Here's another one let's say you're a parent and your teenagers are struggling a bit at the moment that they've got a bit of anxiety thing happening. So recognize this is what the statement might look like if that's the case for you.

Julie South [00:22:38]:

My teenage daughter is struggling with anxiety, and it's impacting her self esteem and her schoolwork. I define the core challenge as supporting her mental health at this critical time. Investigate I talk to her openly to understand what situations trigger her anxiety. I also research typical causes at her age, like academics, relationships, physical changes, or uncertainty about the future shift. I consider how anxiety might stem from pressures I've unintentionally put on her to excel or perhaps my own anxiety patterns she might be modeling. Examine some options are setting reasonable expectations focused on her well being over achievement, getting a therapist's advice on managing anxiety, finding relaxing hobbies and outlets and or outlets for her, or teaching her some self care methods that work for me. Assess I weigh different support strategies based on investment needed versus potential to provide her with coping skills. Bravely act I have an empathetic talk.

Julie South [00:24:04]:

I let her know that I'm here and suggest trying therapy together to build understanding. Optimize I learn anxiety manifests and shows up differently in each person or for each person, and she needs to feel heard, not criticized or compared. Verify I pay attention if therapy provides her healthy strategies for managing her anxiety and improving her general wellness and equip. I research youth anxiety to equip myself with more helpful ways to support her long term through this. I hope you found this helpful if you did. Can I ask you to do me a huge favor, please? Can you please help me spread the Vetstaff Podcast word by telling three of your friends and colleagues about how this show helps veterinary professionals like you get their heads screwed on straight so you can get excited about going to work on Monday mornings. Thank you. If you enjoyed today's episode, then please hit that follow button.

Julie South [00:25:21]:

Wherever you're listening to this right now. It means that you'll automatically receive it free of charge next week's episode direct to your audio feed so you won't miss out. I look forward to spending well, firstly, I thank you and I look forward to spending another half an hour or so with you next week when we'll be looking at time management in more depth. We're going to cover prioritization balance and stress management, all of which are more essential components that go towards strengthening your resilience quotient. This is Julie South signing off and inviting you to go out there and be the most fantabulous and resilient version of you you can be by screwing your head on straight and getting excited about going to work on Monday mornings. Merry Christmas to you and your family. If you're on the roads, in the air, on the water, wherever you are, stay safe. Here's to wishing you a wonderful, blessed Merry Christmas.

Julie South [00:26:36]:

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