Surface Ripples

Part Of The Solution, Or Part Of The Problem?

There are two types of people in this world: those who are Part Of The Solution (I’ll call them POTS), and those who are Part Of the Problem (I’ll call these POPS). Which are you? More to the point, how do others see you? Who do you work with?

You can tell POTS right away. They tend to:

• Have a “can do attitude”;
• Be proactive – anticipate problems and take action;
• Can always be relied on to be around;
• Offer to help in solving problems;
• Come up with solutions without being asked;
• Be the first to volunteer;
• Encourage others;
• Don’t mind working extra to “get it finished” (although this has its limits!);
• Think “outside the box” and generate multiple or different solutions;
• Take accountability for sorting things out.


The POPS are the direct opposite, in other words they:

• See the downside in everything;
• “Goof off”;
• Never volunteer to help;
• Think within rigidly prescribed limits and rarely come up with innovative solutions;
• Leave solutions to others (and find fault with them all when they do);
• Either don’t see the problem coming or leave it to someone else to worry about;
• Find fault with everyone except themselves;
• Don’t make any extra effort unless incentivised/threatened;
• Leave it to someone else to sort out or “pass the buck”.

POPS can be a severe drain on a business, resulting in lower morale, productivity and profitability. If not dealt with or sufficiently bad, your POTS may leave to get out of the poisonous atmosphere that they cause (remember, this is “part of the solution” for a POTS).

Signs that you may have one or more POPS include:

• Increasing/high number of customer/supplier complaints;
• Slow response times;
• Cumbersome/out-dated processes;
• Finding excuses not to do something;
• Poor team morale;
• Resentment towards one or more team members;
• A steady trickle of resignations from or requests to transfer out of a team.

I have worked in teams with people who were POTS and had a visible effect on morale. The Team Leader had to work extra hard to maintain morale, recruit replacements for those who had left/were leaving, get the best out of the team and justify their performance to his/her own manager. All this could have been solved with a well-targeted approach.

So what do you do? The answer is: address the problem (in other words be a POTS yourself). If you’re the team leader, speak to the POPS and find out what’s causing the behaviour. Is it personal circumstances, resentment of other team members, lack of belief in the job, feeling unappreciated, feeling that they’ve been “passed over” or should be paid more? It can be any number of reasons and it may take time to find out. At NO stage should you indicate that you think “they” are the problem, as this will cause them to close up.

Once you’ve worked out where the problem is, ask the POPS how this makes them feel and how it may have impacted their behaviour. If they start listing behaviours that you have noticed, then you’re half way to a solution. Agree to work with them to assist where you can. You can’t guarantee promotions or salary rises, but you CAN put together a Development Plan which may increase their chances. If the issue is not salary/promotion, you still need a plan.

If you’re part of a team where there is a POPS, you can still react in a similar manner, but you will have to be more sensitive when it comes to action plans. You may find that YOU are the cause of the problem and so will need to understand why and modify your own behaviour.

In the end, the only solution may be for someone to leave the team. If it’s the POPS, well and good. If it’s a POTS, then the problem remains…

Labels: Career, Crisis Management, Customer Care, Strategy

posted by William Martin @ 21:21