title: Don't fix it.
abstract: Next to doing nothing, fixing a problem is often the worst thing you could do with it. Fix a problem but miss the context, and you still have the problem--only it's bigger, it's weirder, it costs more, and everybody's grumpy. When something comes at you with a "problem" label, use it as an opportunity to connect things up, to explore, to ask the bigger questions, to find the new possibilities. When we react to a problem, we put ourselves into a dilemma. To find fruitful and creative solutions, we need to be in a place of choice, with many possibilities. Real participation--giving people real choice--is the only way you can bring people's intelligence and life experiences to bear on the situation at hand.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Flower
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Guillaume
mesh_terms: D002755:Choice Behavior; D004651:Employment; D006270:Health Facility Administrators; D006801:Humans; D011340:Problem Solving; D014481:United States