Where Is the Problem?

Recently, I was having a difficult day at work, struggling with a client I had been consulting to, trying to help change their organizational culture. I was encountering a lot of difficulty. The client claimed that he was being cooperative but he was cancelling meetings left and right. In the Adizes Methodology, we don't write reports — we work with the clients to make the changes. Whenever he canceled, the session went out the window and there was less opportunity to lead change.I was losing sleep. One night, I suddenly remembered a quote from my own book of quotes, Food for Thought: “The problem is not there. The problem is here.” Then it dawned on me: I was the problem because I was the one struggling. I needed to decide what to do, and how to act. The client was just a client. He was not plotting about how he is going to make my life miserable.The problem was my ego — I could not accept defeat. I felt I must change the client’s behavior. I was so busy with my own needs that I could not fully understand the client’s needs.The problem is never there. It is always here. Don’t attribute the problem to the competition. Don’t attribute the problem to the government or to new legislation. The problem is not out there—the problem is right here. You are the problem.Instead of saying, “The problem is it’s raining,” say instead, “The problem is we don’t have an umbrella.” Ask what it is that YOU are not doing. You cannot control the rain, that is for sure, but you can control whether you have an umbrella.Focus on yourself and what it is that you should do. What it is that is bothering you, IN LIGHT OF what's happening out there? Unless you focus on yourself, you are not solving the problem. You are running away from the problem by attributing it to forces you have no control over.Just thinking,Ichak Kalderon Adizes