No matter if it’s miscommunication with your boss, buggy software or bad data, problems can bring us down and keep us down. Bad week at work can even takes it toll on your family life and even on your health. Are we at the mercy of bad circumstances?
You need to use your well developed problem solving skills (hey Analysts!) and focus to figure what is the problem is all about and what would be the best solution.
But wait. We have one fundamental problem here…
It about subjectivity of human experience. It’s similar to maps. As you know we can present a data in all sorts of ways that will influence how our audience will interpret it.
We look at problems as untrained public read maps – superficially. We need to dig deeper to find how to handle it.
With our problems we’re our own audience and we could feel our own interpretation of a problem in our gut.
Is our first interpretation the best one? If you react with frustration to a situation you could probably find a different perspective that would work better for you.
“Hogwash! There’s just one way the right way,my way of looking at it” you might say.
Well, how’s that working for you? Are you feeling emotions boiling up when you think about it?
Those interpretations are complex creatures. They depend on our upbringing, origin and past life experience, our ideas of what’s right and wrong.
Sometimes those emotions are really strong. Maybe you feel that you can’t control them. Especially when you have them often.
If situation like that comes up ask yourself “Why I am reacting like that?” and you will discover an interpretation, then follow with “Is sticking to my interpretation worth the stress?”, and then “How can I see it differently and let go of the stress?”
Those three simple questions will work if you practice them.
I feel a lot of frustration experienced by GIS professionals originates from who is in charge of GIS in the organization? If those in charge are insecure, and as a result feel the need to make unilateral GIS decisions and devalue your contribution toward GIS in that job, as a GIS professional you could and could face major challenges in this type of environment. Organizations like this are rarely able to hold on to gifted GIS talent, which is excruciatingly expensive for any organization. Marginalizing the GIS knowledge base in an organization will unquestionably encourage a high turn-over rate…and yet I have seen this prevailing attitude in many organizations. This “attitude” originates primarily from people who have very little understanding of GIS, the knowledge and skills required to do the work, or the potential of GIS in the organization’s long-term plan. However, there is hope…the smart organizations understand that when there is a high turnover rate, it is best to get to the root cause, rather than punish the symptoms :-).