Getting Strategic in 2022 with Strategic Problem Solving

I started working 1:1 with changemaking women before I officially launched my strategy firm With Chéla Inc. And over the course of the past two years, having worked with a number of incredible women in 1:1 sessions, it took me a while to put my finger on exactly what to call the process of what I was doing in collaboration with them. 

We were co-developing strategies for success.

We were exploring personal and professional contexts and understandings. 

We were unpacking social norms and patriarchal values and the impact they’ve had. 

We were, in fact, strategic problem solving. We look at what they want, why they want it, where they want to go, and how to get there critically and collaboratively through the process of problem solving. 

I use strategic problem solving, in a collaborative, safe, and conversational space that allows us to follow my signature methodology (Unpack, Unlock, Unleash) to co-develop personal and professional strategies for success.  And I firmly believe that you cannot arrive at strategy development, without the critical action of strategic problem solving. 

I do want to say this: Just because it’s not a problem, or you don’t think it’s a problem, doesn’t mean you’re not problem-solving. So, strategic problem solving might sound like a very complex thing that large organizations or government agencies are doing, but the reality is that we all use problem-solving techniques on a daily basis. We use them to balance a family schedule, create a meal plan, and navigate our daily routines. There’s something really interesting to be said about the simplicity of it. How to strategically take the necessary steps that will lead you as efficiently, effectively, and smoothly to the desired destination.

Let’s look at it this way. What do we do when we’re making food for the day? We look to the fridge. What do we have in there? What skills do I have to transform those ingredients into something edible? What are my or my family’s desires when it comes to food? What tools (microwave, oven, mixer)  do I have to create it? Sometimes this process is as simple as opening the fridge, spotting the leftovers, and deciding I’m going to microwave this for 45 seconds. Problem solved. 

This is a simple analogy for problem solving. This shows how we look at what we have and what our context is, then examine what tools we have and what methods we’ll take to reach a desired level. 

And if we think of the analogy of hunger, we have to look at the cues we’re receiving. What is it we need? We can think of this as intuitive eating. Intuitive eating means you listen to your body and eat what feels right to you, you no longer look at food as “good” or “bad.” But the thing with intuitive eating is that it relies on a critical outlook and mindset where you’ve unpacked how diet culture has shaped your life, your decision making, and the feelings that go along with it. This is exactly how I approach strategic problem-solving with my clients. 

We look at what we want and need, while unpacking the context of our lives. And we can’t unpack that context without acknowledging the patriarchal power structures which each woman lives and operates in and how those impact our wants and needs. Much like intuitive eating, where we have to analyze the truths we believe about certain foods and why we believe them (cough* diet culture *cough), we have to do the same with our personal and professional lives as women. Who told me I should do this? Why do I believe I can’t speak up about this?

Strategic problem solving also involves challenging common assumptions. Let’s take the pandemic for example. It was a commonly held assumption that remote work would not be as effective or productive. The panic of the pandemic, which drove an entire corporate workforce into a remote work model, has proved that assumption wrong. In fact, there’s no proof of decline of productivity or profit from a business sense. Some employees have even spoken about the increased space for self-care and wellness, and a heightened level of life with work balance (to quote Dr. Robyne Hanley-Dafoe) because they’re in their own homes and time and energy isn’t wasted on hours long commutes. We’ve now challenged the assumption that remote work can’t work. In fact, we’ve proven it can.

We’ve done this time and time again in our work. Challenged commonly held assumptions of women should, of small towns can’t, of we couldn’t possibly. Recently we took the communications strategy lead for local NDP candidate Jodie Primeau’s federal campaign in Renfrew-Nippissing- Pembroke. In a historically conservative riding, a commonly held assumption was that there is no way a progressive, social-justice focused candidate could succeed. We challenged that, and turned to strategic problem-solving to figure out how. With a campaign grounded in feminist principles that reached real and diverse community members across the region, we had a historic run, making Jodie and the NDP the official opposition in our riding. 

Challenging commonly held assumptions about life and work for women is critical to problem-solving and we need to do it in order to make the best decision we can about our wants and needs. 

And that’s exactly what my 1:1 process is like. Actually, that’s what all our processes are like at the firm. Through our offerings of 1:1 strategy sessions, personal branding, and marketing strategies, we use problem solving with all of our clients. We follow the With Chéla Inc. signature methodology of Unpack, Unlock, Unleash with every woman we work with. 

Unpack: The shoulds, the whats, and the whys in their world and system-wide

Unlock: Their goals, their unique strategy, their wants.

Unleash: Their changemaking potential, work, and big ideas on the world. 

And we’re able to help them reach the unleash stage by relying on strategic problem solving. 

What’s making them feel guilty about trying something new? Problem solving gets us there

How do they leave their corporate job? Problem solving gets us there

What’s the best way to share their message with their target audience? You guessed it, problem solving gets us there.

And so strategic problem solving is what we do. We help women look at all the paths in front of them and strategically and critically decide which one to take and how to go about that journey. 

Maybe it’s a clear sidewalk that they’re going down. 

Maybe it’s a path through the forest they’ll choose. 

More likely, it’s a path of their own they’ll forge, cut down, and create as they challenge the shoulds of their world and honour the wants and needs. 

Unpack, Unlock, and Unleash your potential on the world by embracing the process of strategic problem solving. 

Cheers rebels

Ché