Unproblemification

Unproblemification is the art of using a challenge to create useful learning.

It is also used as a verb – to unproblemify – and differs from solving. Solving merely fixes the problem without creating learning.

Sure, when there’s a small, easily solvable problem, applying an immediate fix is great.

Problem solved. 

Yet when the problems become more complex, the challenges become multifaceted. Trying to apply a fix or a quick hack works against long-term learning.

An alternate approach, the one that an experienced life coach embraces, is the unproblemification of the situation. It’s the magic that happens when you relax the universal reflex to solve the problem immediately and instead ask:

• What is this situation trying to teach me right now?
• What’s the best part of this challenge?
• What personal characteristic is this problem asking me to develop?

When you turn your attention away from fixing the problem and instead look at you or your client’s learning and being, you’ve unproblemified the situation.

And the best part is that insights that come are more valuable than that quick fix that someone could offer.

Turns out fixing is the opposite of empowering.