Imagine getting in trouble at work. Imagine that your project failed or imagine that someone is always opposing you. Are you pointing fingers? Will that solve anything for you? Think about the difference between these two small words, who and what.

How would you react if Paul Projectmanager always disagree with you and makes your day miserable by being negative and destructive? Is Paul a problem? Are your ideas better if you get rid of Paul and fire him?

Stop thinking about who is causing the problem; start thinking about what to do to solve the problem.

By removing the person behind the “who”, you might just get a new problem as a new alpha member of the tribe steps up and becomes the new head of annoyment and source of all evil around the office.

What is causing the problem might give you a total different answer. It might end up with a who, but at least you are displaying ability to think first. Paul Projectmanager might just feel ignored; maybe you are being a bad manager? It might be an Andy Accountant that is being the problem because he smells and this is so annoying to all the other co-workers and nobody can fathom why you’re not doing anything about it. Or you might just need a candy bar vending machine to get the sugar levels rising?

I figure you have gotten the point by now.

Wow, what a week this has been. It has been rainy and fall has its windy grip on the nature. I have been to Kiel in Germany on a work related kick off enjoying every minute just to arrive home with the flu. So I have been to bed for a few days with fever only to wake up today fit for fight in top shape. The sun is shining and what a perfect day for gardening. So the kids and I went out to cut down some of the bushes along the road and we fixed my bike. The patio furniture has been stored away in the garage and my youngest son collected about fifty worms for his worm farm. And finally we can relax and enjoy the day. The oldest kid gets his precious few hours in front of the computer; the youngest one is watching the movie Bolt, Mom gets to sleep and rest while I finally get to blog.

But I have been away for a week; I got a lot of catching up to do. Now what?

First of all I need to spend some time evaluating what I want to achieve during next week. I should make a top 10 priorities list. Sort out the ten most important things to do, what can wait, what do I need to do right away?

I should check my “to do” list from last week to see if I need to follow up on anything. And then I just need to stay focused and work hard to get back on track again.

What do you do to get back on track after a week absence? I would love some good advice.