I've never had much patience for the question "Can we?" I want to hear "How do we?" And lately I've got even less patience for it than I used to. People didn't get worse. The excuses ran out.
Today I want to talk about problem solving. Or really, about the people on your team who won't even try. Can you coach them out of it? Is it a skill, or is it just how they're wired? And how long should you keep trying before you admit it isn't going to happen?
Hang on, because I know where some of you are already going with this. I'm not saying people shouldn't ask for help. You've got smart, experienced people on your team. Use them. That's what they're there for, and not using them would be dumb. I'm also not saying anybody should know everything or never hit a wall that's past what they can do today. Everybody hits that wall.
This is about what happens before you ask. The mindset. The effort. The approach. Do you show up with a question? Or do you show up with a question and what you've already tried?
Think about how much easier it's gotten to find an answer.
Ten years ago, if somebody on your crew didn't know what a plant was, finding out meant a book, a call to the nursery, or waiting for somebody who knew. Today he takes a picture with his phone and has the answer before he's back at the truck.
Your office manager needs a report the software doesn't seem to want to give her. That used to mean a call to support and a long hold. Today she can describe what she wants to an AI tool, and it'll walk her through it in a couple of minutes. For the way most people would use it, it doesn't cost anything. Or it’s very inexpensive.
So "I didn't know how to find out" doesn't really hold up anymore. What's left is whether somebody wants to.
AI didn't create people who won't problem solve. It just made them a lot easier to see and a lot harder to excuse. What used to be an annoying weakness, maybe one you learned to work around, is glaring now. To you, and to everybody working next to them.
Picture it. A property has a row of shrubs that keep dying in the same spot. One person goes straight to the manager: "What's wrong with these?" Another takes a picture, asks AI, checks how much sun that spot gets and whether water's sitting there, maybe calls the nursery. Then they go to the manager with, "Here's what I think it is."
An irrigation tech runs into a controller he doesn't know. One calls his manager every time. Another pulls up the manual or a troubleshooting video on his phone and works through it.
In the office, a vendor invoice doesn't match the PO. One person walks it over to the controller and asks what to do. Another pulls the PO and the delivery ticket, calls the vendor, and comes back with, "They billed us for 40 yards and we got 32. I already asked them for a corrected invoice."
Same job. Same tools. Same phone in their pocket. Different first move.
What doesn't show up on any report is who's absorbing all of this.
When someone won't try, their problems don't go away. They roll downhill to whoever will. That's usually your best people. The crew leader who always figures it out ends up figuring it out for two other guys. The controller ends up doing AP's thinking.
For a while, they'll carry it. They're good people. But everybody gets tired of carrying weight that isn't theirs. And the person you lose over it won't be the one who wouldn't try.
So which is it? Is problem solving a skill you can train, or is it just how somebody's built?
I think it's two things. There's the method: how to break a problem down, where to look, how to use a tool like AI. You can teach that, and you can teach it fast. Then there's the reflex, meaning what somebody does in the first 30 seconds after they hit a wall. Either they reach for "how," or they reach for someone else. That's habit. And a habit only changes when the person decides they want it to.
That's why I think training isn't really the fix. It's the test.
Take AI. Sit down with someone once and show them how to use it on a real problem from their actual job. Not a demo. Their problem. Then watch.
The person who picks it up and runs with it was missing a tool, and now they have it. The person who's still walking into your office two weeks later with "I can't" or "I don't know how" has just shown you where they stand. The training didn't fail. It worked. It told you what you needed to know.
The power of coachability in hiring.
Now, before you start writing people off, look at yourself first.
Some of the "I can't" people on your team were built at work. Maybe you're the owner or manager who answers every question the second it's asked. Who grabs it and does it yourself because it's faster. Who comes down hard when somebody tries something and gets it wrong.
If so, you trained that. Every time somebody tries, gets it wrong, and gets hammered for it, the whole team learns the same lesson: don't try, just ask. So give credit for the attempt. Then fix the answer.
A lot of teams have also never heard the expectation said out loud. Leaders assume it's obvious, and it isn't always. So say it: "When you bring me a problem, bring me what you tried and what you think we should do." Now it's a standard, and it's fair to hold people to it.
Not years. Weeks.
Once you've set the expectation, stop answering first. Every time somebody brings you something, ask, "What have you tried?" and "What do you think we should do?" Do that every time for about 30 days.
Don't judge where they start. Judge whether it moves. Are the questions changing? Are they going from "I can't!" to "I tried this and this, and I'm stuck here"? If they are, keep going. They're coming along.
If you've done that for 30 days and nothing has moved, you have your answer. You can keep coaching. You can keep nudging. But it's not your job to want it more than they do.
Somebody's thinking it, so let's deal with it.
Yes, there are places where you do not want someone just figuring it out. A climber. Chemical application. Anything near a gas line. Somebody's first week on the job. In those spots, asking first is the right call, and you want them to ask.
But look at what they're asking. "Is this safe?" is a good question. "Is this even possible?" before lifting a finger is something else.
And the role doesn't change the reflex. A crew leader, an AP clerk, and a GM all hit problems every day. The problems look different. The first move doesn't.
The other extreme can be a problem too. The person who spins their wheels for four hours so they don't have to ask for help isn't problem solving. That's the wrong kind of pride. You want people to give it a real try, maybe 15 minutes, maybe 30, depending on what it is. Then ask for help, and bring with them what they've tried.
When we hire for our own team at BR1, problem solving has moved way up the list. And you can't just ask somebody if they're a problem solver. Everybody says yes.
So ask something that doesn't give the answer away: "Tell me about something new you had to figure out at work in the last few months." Then dig in. "Walk me through it. What did you do first? Then what? At what point did you bring somebody else in?"
Don't get caught up in how the story ends. Listen for the first move. Somebody who actually dug in can tell you where they looked, what they tried, and what didn't work. Somebody who didn't gets vague fast.
Then ask their references the same thing.
Is this a bigger deal to me than to most leaders? Maybe. I'll own that. I'm probably less patient about it than a lot of people.
But patient or not, the market's moving this way. When the answer is one question away, the people who won't ask it are going to get harder and harder to justify on a team.
Is it too late for them? No. Anybody can decide to start trying. But they're the ones who have to decide.
So here's what I'd challenge you to do. The next time someone brings you a question you know they could figure out, don't answer it. Ask them what they've tried. Do that for 30 days, and you'll find out who's coming along.
You might also find out how much of this you built yourself.
Until next time, keep building your stronger team!