Execute · 18 / 24
Solving problems without breaking momentum
Problem Solving is the disciplined sequence of stabilizing perception, naming what matters, framing the issue at the right level, and designing an intervention the organization can learn from rather than merely react through.
This competency resolves the difference between speed as anxious motion and momentum as motion that still points the right way under pressure.
Under pressure, leaders often solve the first story that fits the pain, at the wrong level, with a mechanism mismatched to the problem's real nature. The organization then manages a portfolio of reactions instead of resolving the constraint that produced the original miss.
In practice, this competency requires resisting the urge to jump to solutions before understanding has caught up with urgency, and treating a problem as a signal about fit rather than a personal failure to be hidden. It also requires knowing when stopping is the more competent move than continuing.
This competency has its own chapter in the second edition.
Second Edition — available now
Twenty-four competencies, read through the DOES cycle and the Levels of Work. The full architecture, chapter by chapter.
Available in paperback and Kindle.