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I had the unfortunate task of attending. What's wrong with this picture? The unfortunate problem was Management's policy of problem solving by the book and not training staff to recognize, report and/or respond to opportunities. What is the difference between these two scenarios? The problem solver will typically focus on fixing what is broken. The opportunity-seeker takes it one step further by asking, "how can I take advantage of the ambiguity in this situation by trying something new. Or, "what do I see that I did not focus attention on before?"

WAKE UP TO THE WONDERS OF EMPOWERMENT:

Truth be known, the more often we condition our leaders to always do something the same way, the more difficult it is for them to think of doing it any other way. By encouraging your leaders to take advantage of the resources around them, namely their team members, you begin to empower your team players. In addition, by getting more diversified input, especially from the trenches, you're getting data that's fresh and more unfiltered for Management's ears and ego. There's greater potential for turning a negative situation into a positive and harmonious solution.

To this end, I called a Management Meeting and suggested I work with the Managers in creating an Agenda and a new approach to the upcoming departmental meetings. This pilot project called for me taking the place of the Departmental Manager and the Manager, now part of the team, actively participating at the next meeting.

Midway through the week, I asked each Manager to meet with me with their notes for the upcoming meeting. From the notes, we developed an "invitation to participate" agenda that was then forwarded to all team members. This invitation clearly addressed the problems and goals and each member was asked to come prepared to tackle each problem by looking for the possible opportunities that could arise from the problem that could be implemented with positive results. We also asked that teams work together to exchange ideas to accomplish this goal and that all members of the team will be expected to participate at the next meeting. The Manager was asked to work with his team as a team player in this exercise and not a leader. I thought this approach will help mend some fences and would also teach the Manager the importance of learning from his team by empowering them to share ideas and offer solutions. In other words, I wanted the Manager to look at the problem through others' eyes; to learn to see things from a

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