My brain just ceases to function, particularly if another person is verbally going through it themselves in a way where they kind of expect me to follow their train of thought.
I have to take it away and work on it independently. This often proves difficult at work when others in my team are the opposite.
I think it might be a social anxiety thing, my brain power is taken up by that, leaving nothing left for problem solving.
Thanks for reading.
I totally get this. On the spot thinking when it comes to stuff like that is just nah
I donāt think thatās a bad thing tbh man
I find that the folks I work with who make decisions within minutes of something new being revealed/asked about are 95% of the time people wrongly over-relying on instinct
Thereās a very specific type of person who can think very quickly and get it right most of the time, but theyāre very rare. The owner of the bookshop is one but even he needs people like me to politely cough an hour later and say āIāve run the numbers, we need to rethinkā in the event of the odd fuckup
I donāt think Iāve ever enjoyed working as part of a team. Maybe thatās partly ego, and partly my brain needing very precise conditions to be able to think clearly. Give me a problem to solve and my own space and I can work backwards or forwards quite methodically, but stick me in a group environment and Iām like a fish trying to ride a bicycle.
Most people tend to have solutionised by the time they present a problem and youāre either with them or youāre not. Itās not a good thing at all and closes the door on a lot of often better solutions that never get properly explored because someone is already half way to one that theyāve not properly thought out. Theyāre the problem, not you.
You can however look really clever by asking them to pause for a minute, step back and focus on defining what youāre actually trying to achieve and work through things in a strucctured way more akin to how you might using Lean/Six Sigma type thinking.
Thereās some stuff here too.
completely legit way to be and donāt ever let anyone tell you otherwise
I find a probā¦ issue with group problem solving is that most people have not great meta-cognition and donāt understand how they themselves think, and/or are not the least bit aware of their biases. I try to make a point of saying āI think x, but then Iām biased towards that solution because yā.
Obvs one of the things about biases is that youāre never going to be aware of all of them or be able to correct for them, but I find it infuriating to work with people who donāt even attempt to take that step back and think āhmm, why do I think that and not something else?ā
tl;dr fuck 'em
I have this massively. In addition to this, my core assumption in life is that Iām wrong and everybody else is right, and that combined with a pathological desire to please people (I think stemming from an extreme fear of conflict) means I get utterly steamrolled in such situations. Itās the same with real-time conversations and meetings. I need time to think without pressure or expectation or external influence, and I donāt see why thatās such a strange or bad thing 
I manage someone who by default assumes theyāre wrong, even though they have such good instincts and are hugely valuable on the team.
It often means I have be a bit sly in prodding an opinion/answer out of him and the going slightly more celebratory about it when theyāre right than I would do with others, but itās very slowly changing that mindset.
I think tbh the way the likes of you, barleysugar and others work and think is as valuable as anyone else, itās up to managers to understand and use that best - if they donāt, why the fuck are they managers and what worth do they bring?
Empathise hugely with this. Luckily I have found myself in a role which generally speaking allows me time to gather information/data, do some analysis and come back with some conclusions rather than being expected to make decisions on the spot. Trouble is this then exposes my other big weakness which is procrastination!
ā¦and thats ok
Too often the knowledge of self to be able to articulate a thing like this is followed up with a pressure to address it as a āgrowth areaā. Knowing the thing about yourself in the first place is, in and of itself, growth.
Iām definitely this way too. Whether itās zoom or in person, I like to gather information and input, then take it back to my corner for processing. Some of that is social anxiety and over-stimulation for sure.
Agree with the procrastination bit too. But Iāve learned that to some degree, itās part of my creative process. The issue Iām trying to solve is always in the back of my mind even if Iām doing other stuff (like DiS). This also contributes to my anxiety as opposed to just being able to knock something out, or at least stay focused for longer periods of time and then truly step away.
But thatās just how some of us are and thatās one way of being.
Yep I canāt do quick problem solving in groups at all either. Lots of good points made in this thread. I found that accepting that I need time to gather then process really helped, and letting other folk know thisā¦ Found actually then I usually came up with better solutions than many, given a little time/space. Maybe mention to a few folk how you work best, weāre not all best at problem solving in teams thatās for sure.
