I recently was reading an interesting article on BusinessWeek.com titled ‘The Problem with Problems" by Fred Collopy, professor at Case Western Reserve University. The premise of his article was that "by focusing so often and so consistently on problems, we come to adopt a kind of deficit thinking. Plans of action that flow from it are concerned with repairing, fixing, and compensating. We spend so much time considering what is wrong with our organizations that we overlook what is right."

If there ever was a time for business owners and their organizations to find the value of positive thinking, it is now.  Now I am not talking about some mystical mind-bending exercise to make us all feel better.  What I am talking about, and what I think the professor was getting at in his article, was that it is time we start to look at the good things our businesses do and start to rediscover the value our businesses bring to the marketplace - the things we do better than anyone else.

Start thinking about them, and start reminding one another within the organization of what we do well.  We need to instill that "positive thinking" in all levels of the organization - from upper management and the board of directors all the way down to those that come in contact with  customers on a daily basis.  And then, once we have reminded each other internally of what is positive about our company, then we need to start reminding our current customers and even those "soon to be" customers what our value is and why they need our products and services. 

In an upcoming article I wrote for a local business journal, I remind business owners that rediscovering value, from an internal and external perspective, is something that our businesses need now more than ever, considering the economic challenges we are all facing these days.  Whether it's good times or not, our organizations need to spend time analyzing and highlighting the value our companies create.  It is also not a time to be timid about innovations, but it is a pivotal point where we need to invest in enhancing our companies' strengths to bring them out of this economic malaise.  By doing this we will set our organizations up like on a springboard to launch to new levels of success when things start to turn around.

You certainly can't ignore problems; you do need to deal with them, but it certainly will be a more powerful and productive use of our time and energy if we spent more time emphasizing the good our companies are doing and highlight and reinvest in our strengths.

Contact William Wright at (757) 685-2455 or by email at wwright@b2bcfo.com