When problems appear, they tend to grab our attention. That’s true for everyone.

Once problems are connected with the idea of a risk, we can assume that fear is not far away anymore. And fear grabs our attention as it calls our survival instinct.

In practical terms, this means that once a problem is identified, people have a tendency to want to make the problem go away. The sought out solution is to concentrate on resolving the problem and give that priority.

An interesting consequence of this activity is that problems will be easily accepted as such by others instead of being questioned. It’s again an impact of fear. When one person in a group brings something up that connects with their fear, you might notice how others react to that fear in the hope to make it go away.

Instead of keeping one person busy, the problem now keeps the group busy.

In these moments it’s helpful, that different people have different perceptions of what a problem is and what not. And even more so, that the group culture allows them to show up with a different perception.