HOW WE CREATE OUR OWN PROBLEMS

Stop Creating Roadblocks,
Start Enabling Progress

Break the cycle of self-sabotage and unlock your team's true potential to solve problems and deliver value.

A One Time Only Jim Benson Workshop.
NEW TIME February 19, 2025
07:30 am Pacific Time on Zoom

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We Create Our Own Problems.
We Can Fix Our Own Problems.
We Just Need to See Them.

Breaking Free:
Escaping Cultural Traps that Fuel Workplace Chaos

Work doesn't have to hurt. Too often I see people treat work is a daily uphill battle – putting out fires, chasing deadlines, drowning in never-ending backlogs. People fighting just to be professional.

I created this quick focused 90-minute workshop to explore the patterns sabotaging your team's productivity and morale. We'll work together to uncover how underthought plans, processes, and culture create psychological traps like overconfidence and ownership obsession which breed bottlenecks, rework and cross-team conflicts. 

But this isn't just analysis – it's about reclaiming agency. Our ability to act with confidence. We will discuss strategies to align effort, embrace continuous learning, and foster an environment of true collaboration. 

The answers are deceptively simple, but implementing real change takes courage. If you're ready to get out of your own way and unleash your team's full potential, join us. No more putting out fires – it's time to ignite. progress.

Workplace Mindsets & Behaviors

  • Foster a culture of continuous improvement over rigid plan adherence
  • Embrace discomfort and vulnerability to unlearn dysfunctional workplace habits
  • Reclaim agency and ownership as by creating meaningful progress

Collaborative Problem-Solving

  • Leverage diverse perspectives to generate robust, creative solutions
  • Facilitate open dialogue where all voices contribute to emergent ideas
  • Promote parallel processing over siloed, individual problem-solving

Visual Management Principles

  • Increase transparency around constraints and capacity
  • Reveal shared understanding and thematic patterns
  • Align effort and limit work-in-progress

Operations & Psychological Traps

  • Recognize biases that lead to underestimating complexity
  • Avoid false dichotomies of "problem vs. solution" that ignore context
  • Question assumptions of rigid ownership that impede collaboration

 Stop Creating Roadblocks, Start Enabling Progress

Focused Results | Immediate Implementation 

Let’s make progress together

This was exactly what I needed.

~ Chris C.
I am going back and using this right now.

~ Eddie
 This is exactly the course I was looking for.

~ Joe C.
Meet the instructorS

Jim Benson

Jim Benson is a pioneer in the field of lean management for knowledge workers and the creator of Personal Kanban, a globally recognized system for visualizing and controlling knowledge work. With a diverse background spanning civil engineering, urban planning, software development, and collaborative management consulting, Jim has worked tirelessly to help organizations of all sizes adopt sustainable Lean practices that combine principles from manufacturing, Agile methodologies, and cognitive psychology. His award-winning book "Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life" (co-authored with Tonianne DeMaria) has introduced kanban beyond software into domains like accounting, law, international development, and engineering. As the founder of Modus Cooperandi, Jim partners with clients to build flow-based systems, limit work-in-progress, and cultivate cultures that support true collaboration and continuous improvement. His most recent book is The Collaboration Equation.