WE face many problems at work. Some are solvable. Some seem impossible to solve!

Well, problems are all subjective in nature. For instance, the relationship between two team members (important for the health of a project's success), going sour is a problem that is solvable for some and unsolvable for the rest.

Would you subscribe to the idea, "All problems are unsolvable, and smart people make others feel it was solvable?"

It is simple to solve most problems if you are smart. But the way to get smart is what appears to be invisible to most.

Let us trace popular problem patterns, and problems that seem very unsolvable. Let me give you some ways that 'might' work for you with an analysis.

Problem A: Two team members are responsible for producing a report that management might need to help them take a more informed decision

Analysis: Remember: these two folks have different brains, with different knowledge, different interpretation of data, different skills, different motives, different culture, different experience, different bodies. The only thing they have in common: their objective.

Solution 1
If you are one of the team members who feels you have an issue with a coworker and this issue affects the speed of the work execution, and you intend to solve it:

a. You may want to convey the effect of such an issue continuing between you two that affect the quality of the work that you both produce. Which, in turn, affects your salary, perquisites, promotions.

b. You might want to understand the reason behind his/her thought process, which conflicts with yours, and reach a common understanding by showing evidence of the value that your thought process might add, and the value that his or her thought process might add. It might be wonderful if you mix high value components from both ends.

c. You might want to appreciate his/her ideas that helped you deliver something that fetched appreciation either in front of the team or through a wonderful e-card that can remains in his/her inbox as a memorable one.

d. You might want to invite him/her for a coffee or lunch. And, over the table, you appreciate his/her skill that is helping you to learn new things.

e. Why not I let you think of more ways yourself than to kill your creativity by giving a huge list?!

Solution 2
If you are a manager who observes such a pattern between team members:

a. You might want to show both of them the quality of the work that they initially produced when there were no issues between them.

b. You might want to share a story from your experience of how two people who did not cooperate with each other affected the project that they worked for and their own career growth.

c. You might want to offer them incentives to produce reports faster, which could be possible if they forget their issues at work.

The cost of the incentive could be much lower than the cost that might occur if they continue to have a bad relationship at work.

d. You might want to shuffle team members into the 'pair' working mode, to see the best combination that benefits the project.

e. Yet again, let me ask you to think of more ways to solve this problem.
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(Photograph used for illustrative purposes only)