Energy & Apathy
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When challenges and opportunities arise, do colleagues and clients raise their energy levels to focus on them? It is a key indicator. Look around your work situation at the moment. On which issues are people investing their time and effort? On which issues are they letting things take their course? This will tell you where their energy and apathy is.
Problem solving is more than having technical skills and knowledge. It is most often about energy and apathy. Therefore, understanding the needs of people is an important part of problem solving. Energy and apathy also tells you a lot about people’s beliefs. For some people, this is more important than money or fame.
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Margaret Sanger
It is interesting to note that people who eventually succeeded were often surrounded by the apathy and disbelief of those around them. Margaret Sanger was an advocate for women's health and in particular, wanted to provide girls with information about contraception. There was an outcry from priests and politicians against educating girls in such matters. Despite the apathy, Margaret Sanger continued with her campaign. Although she was imprisoned for her work, eventually her energetic efforts provided books and information to help women improve their health. The following quotation sums up her understanding of the needs of the people.
“No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her body. No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother.” – Margaret Sanger.
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Applications
Therefore, in problem solving look at how you can improve your own energy and that of colleagues and clients, to focus on the important and urgent problems. Look at the factors and invite colleagues and clients to discuss the key issues. It can be as simple as getting the right people in the same room and asking them how they can help each other in solving a problem. In doing so, it is useful to provide them with the CPS framework for thinking. It is also useful for them to chart when energy is high and when it is low (for that is moving towards apathy).
In short, the five big skills can be used to understand and explain why energy levels go up and down, and to evaluate and implement solutions. Energy and apathy never stand still. Therefore, look at where your energy and apathy is moving in relation to people and tasks. The following matrix provides a way of thinking about the issues.
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