Welcome Professionals…

…When I recently came into the room that I use as my office at home, I discovered that my 8 year old daughter had layed out a jigsaw puzzle on the floor. I think it consists of 500 parts and she had just got started with the frame.

I could not resist to take a look at the puzzle parts every time I passed them, trying to find at least one additional fitting piece. Although it is absolutely not my business and my daughter will probably be angry with me if I make some visible progress, I just had to give it a try everytime I gazed the pile of parts.

When I finally left the room, a couple of observations occurred to me:

• I seem to have a natural drive towards finding solutions for problems, even when they are clearly not my business.
• It helps to get started with the big picture!
• It helps to form a hypothesis which puzzle part is going to fit next before looking at the big pile of parts!
• As a rule, I will not find the puzzle part I was looking for, but come across another part that will make a good addition to the big picture along the way.
• Trial and error is a necessity to make progress.
• The process is more fun than taking pride in the end result!

I leave you with this and wish you great fun in puzzling out the problems of your client!

Malte

Thursday Night Flight is brought to you by Malte Müller Professionals. Sharing best practices for top management consultants on topics like communication, client handling, problem solving, appearance, and fitness. Check out www.mm-professionals.com for more material and free resources!