Problem Solving
John 16:33, James 4:7, John 16:33
April 28, 2003
I. There is one thing that is certain about being leaders, and it applies to leading our family and at work and in our service for God, and that thing is that we will face problems.
A. We should not be surprised that we face problems, Jesus told us that we would, but the key is not to let our problems stifle our progress.
B. Everyone of us will face problems in our lives, and because we are all leaders in some way, we have to learn to solve problems, because the problems that we face not only effect us but they effect the people that we lead, and the people that we lead are looking to us to lead them to the solution.
C. As leaders and again, we are all leaders in some way, we have a responsibility to those we lead to find ways to solve problems.
D. When we are faced with problems we can’t lay down and hope that they will go away, because the people that we lead are depending on us.
II. Sam Walton the founder of Wal-Mart has been called a lot of things including the enemy of small town America and destroyer of Main Street Merchants, because quite a few smaller stores have gone out of business during the time of Wal-Mart’s growth.
A. The truth is that Sam Walton was the Main Street type of merchant that he is accused of replacing. The only difference is that he was a great leader who was able to solve problems rather than go out of business.
B. Sam Walton was born in Kingfisher Oklahoma and grew up in Columbia Missouri. He was a leader in Highschool and was elected President of the student body, and led his football team to a state championship as quarterback, and a basketball state championship as a five foot nine inch team leader.
C. He went to college, worked for a few years and then served in the Army during WWII. When he got out of the Army he decided to spend his life working in retail.
D. He and his wife decided to live in Bentonville Arkansas and opened Waltons’ Five and Dime Variety Store.
E. The business did well, a lot because of Walton’s hard work, and in his foresight in making the store self service, and by 1960 he had expanded to fifteen stores.
F. It was about that time that Herb Gibson brought his discount stores to South Arkansas, and they competed directly with Walton’s stores.
G. Walton said, "we only had two choices, stay in the variety store business and be hit hard by the discounting wave or open a discounting store. So I started running all over the country studying the concept. We opened Wal-Mart #1 on July 2, 1962, in Rodgers Arkansas."
H. Walton soon added additional stores. His Wal-Mart chain was small compared to others started around the same time, like K-Mart, Woolco, and Target, but it was going strong.
I. Walton realized that he had a problem with planning and distribution, so he and his leaders solved it by creating distribution centers that along with computerization allowed them to order in bulk, and keep track of each stores needs, and allow them to be stocked quickly and efficiently.
J. When doing this created a problem in cash flow it was just another problem to be solved and Walton did this by putting His company on the stock Market in 1970.
K. When Sam Walton died in 1992, His company operated more than 1700 stores in forty-two states and Mexico.
L. Sam Walton became America’s number one retailer, because he solved problems.
M. While other retailers were complaining about the competition Sam Walton rose above it by solving problems and moving forward.
N. Every leader will face problems. They are inevitable because we live in a world of growing complexity and diversity. We interact with people. And, we can’t control all the situations that we face.
III. As leaders at any level we have to learn to solve problems and good leaders do that when:
A. THEY ANTICIPATE PROBLEMS.
1. Problems are going to come, and anyone who expects the road to be smooth and easy will continually find themselves in TROUBLE.
2. Many people have heard of David Livingstone the Missionary in Africa. A missionary organization wanted to send helpers to Dr. Livingstone, and the leader wrote him a letter saying, have you found a good road to where you are? If so, we want to send other men to join you."
3. Livingstone wrote back, " If you have men who will only come if there is a good road , I don’t want them. I want men who will come if there is no road at all."
4. Leaders need an attitude that is always positive, but one that also allows them to plan for the worst, because with that attitude we will be prepared to SOLVE PROBLEMS when they come.
B. Good Leaders ACCEPT THE TRUTH.
1. People respond to problems in different ways. They refuse to accept them; they accept them and then put up with them, or they accept them and then try to make things better. Leaders always have to do the last one.
2. Paul Harvey said something once that every leader needs to remember. He said "In times like these it is good to remember, that there have always been times like these."
3. Problems will come and no good leader can have their head in the sand and LEAD their followers through troubled waters.
4. Effective leaders face up to the REALITY of a situation.
C. Good Leaders also SEE THE BIG PICTURE.
1. Leaders can’t allow themselves to be overwhelmed by EMOTION, but they also can’t get so bogged down in the details that they lose sight of the things that are IMPORTANT.
2. Alfred Armand Montapert wrote, The majority see the obstacles; the few see the objectives; history records the successes of the latter, while oblivion is the reward of the former."
3. As leaders in our family, at work, and in serving God we have to see the big picture, and success requires that the big picture contains the obstacles that we will face and the ways to solve them if we want to move forward.
D. Good leaders HANDLE ONE THING AT A TIME.
1. Richard Sloma has this advice for solving problems, " Never try to solve all the problems at once-make them line up for you one-by one."
2. Leaders that get into the most trouble are the ones that get overwhelmed by the sheer size or volume of their TROUBLES and then dabble at problem solving.
3. If you are faced with a lot of problems you have to really solve the one that you are working on before you start working on the next one.
4. Solving problems requires FOCUS.
E. Good Leaders DON’T GIVE UP A MAJOR GOAL WHEN THEY ARE DOWN.
1. Effective leaders realize that you have to make major decisions when you are experiencing a positive swing, not during the dark times. Major decisions made during the dark times are usually a result of emotion and not well thought out plans, and result in more problems to solve.
2. NFL fullback Bob Christian says "I never decide whether it is time to retire during training camp." In other words he knows never to decide its time to quit when the going is TOUGH because it is not a time that you make wise decisions.
3. It is my opinion that this church will be the last and only church that I pastor. I can’t say that God will never change that, but I have found that the calls that come from people wanting me to consider moving to another church always come at the times when I am the most frustrated with not being able to accomplish the things that I feel we need to accomplish here, and under that circumstance I don’t seriously consider them, because major direction changing decisions made in hard times are more than likely the wrong decisions.
F. Every problem that you face introduces you to yourself. It shows you how you think and what you are made of.
1. The ability to solve problems comes from experience in facing and OVERCOMING them.
2. Each time you solve another problem, you get a little better at the process, but if you try to ignore problems and hope it will go away, or feel powerless to solve them, or just give up because you have not been very good at solving them in the past then you will never get better.
3. If you never try, fail, and try again, you’ll never get good anything..
4. Try using the TEACH Method.
T IME- spend the time to discover the real issue creating the problem.
E XPOSURE - find out what others facing the same issue have done.
A SSISTANCE - have the people close to you study all the angles.
C REATIVITY - brain storm to find multiple possible solutions.
H IT IT- implement the best solution with all you have.
John 16:33 NIV) "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
G. There is no doubt that we will have trouble, but we should never allow trouble to kill our peace, because we serve the one who has over come the world.
H. Boxer Gene Tunney won the world heavyweight championship by beating Jack Dempsey, but most people don’t know that when Tunney started his boxing career he was a power puncher.
1. But before he turned pro Tunney broke both his hands and his trainer and his doctor told him that he would never be a world champion, but that didn’t stop him.
2. He said, " If I can’t become champion as a puncher I will become champion as a boxer."
3. He learned and became one of the most skillful boxers ever to become World Champion.
4. Never let other people put obstacles in your way to keep you from getting to your dreams.
5. We will all face problems and decisions that have to be made, there is no doubt about that, but the main thing is that we don’t let our facing problems turn us away from God, because God is the only place where we will find lasting answers.
6. Satan wants to be able to create obstacles in our lives that will get us so focused on the problems that we lose sight of God who is the only lasting solution.
7. Or he wants to create problems so we will get discouraged and turn away from God, because we see that as the easier path, and it might seem that it is the easier path at the time, but it only creates more problems, and refusing to face our problems will never make our situation better.
I. (James 4:7 NIV) says, Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
1. The bible tells us that if we resist the devil he will flee, that also means that if we don’t resist the devil he will not flee.
2. The only real solution to our problems is to resist satan’s attempts use our problems to move us away from God.
3. But if you look at the verse there is more to it than just that. It first says submit yourselves to God.
4. To resist the devil we first have to submit ourselves to God, which indicates that if we are not resisting the devil then we are not submitted enough to God.
5. And that also means if we are not resisting the devil, then what we are really doing is, resisting God .
J. In facing, dealing with, and resolving problems, just make sure that your dreams are in line with what God wants in your life and keep trying.
1. If you face problems, then find ways to solve them.
2. If you fail, then don’t quit, find another way.
3. The only way that you will ever get better at solving the problems that you face is by refusing to quit, and learning from the times that you try and fail
4. And always submit yourself totally to God.
IV. (John 16:33 NIV) "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
A. Never forget that God has already overcome the world. He has already made the solutions available, we just have to trust him enough to let him lead us to the solution and that means that we have to keep following even when we can’t see the end of the trip, because we know that the one that is leading us knows where we are going and is capable of getting us there.
