Yes, that feeling is not uncommon. You’re sailing through life smoothly, feeling utmost comfort, enjoying the ease of your achievements, and then suddenly being hit by a wave of problems that knock you off course 😅. At some point or another, we all experience it, and when it happens, it can be frustrating and overwhelming. That’s where “problematizing” comes in handy. It helps us figure things out so we can get back on flow and keep moving forward.
Problematizing means looking closely at things we usually take for granted, true or not worth questioning. It is a process that involves casting doubt on what is commonly accepted or established fact. It’s about asking why we see some things as no big deal and question the reasons why we decided who or what gets left out of the conversation. When we do this, we’re trying to find any hidden biases, power differences, or assumptions that might have affected how we see things.
Whether it be in your studies, relationships or personal goals, this concept can help you break down and understand issues in a deeper way. It’s like a hidden treasure waiting to be discovered and a powerful tool to turn problems into opportunities for growth.
Instead of just trying to solve problems on the surface level, problematizing digs deeper to find the root causes. It involves scanning for contradictions in the problem, lack of evidence for a thought, or faults in discussions, situations and narratives. It is a refining moment to fully grasping the problem before taking a step to solve it. You can ask questions such as, how would I restate the problem in my own words? What type of problem is this? Have I seen a similar problem before? Do I have any initial ideas as to how I might possibly solve this problem?
For example, let’s say you’re struggling in a class. Instead of just trying to study harder or ask for extra help, try problematizing the situation. Is it that you don’t understand the material? Are the lectures not helpful? Are you not studying in the most effective way? By identifying the problem, you can then come up with a plan to address it.
Problematizing can also be helpful in navigating your personal relationships. If you’re having conflict with a friend or a partner, try to understand what’s really causing the problem. Is there a lack of communication? Are there unresolved issues? By pinpointing the problems, you can then actively move towards finding solutions and resolving conflicts. This concept can be applied to our professional lives as well. Imagine for a moment, you are a manager of a team, you are consistently receiving complaints of miscommunication and conflicting priorities among team members. It can be easy to dismiss these complaints and just try to solve the issues on a surface level. However, through problematizing and digging deeper into the problems, you may uncover that the underlying issue is, for instance, a lack of clearly defined roles and responsibilities among team members.
Problematizing is not always an easy task, yet it’s a valuable skill to have. Instead of avoiding or dismissing problems, it helps you tackle them head on and find long lasting solutions. Learning to identify what isn’t working in our daily lives and understanding the reasons behind our dissatisfaction is important. By investigating problems in a deeper way with probing questions, we can start brainstorming possible solutions to them. So, next time you’re faced with a problem, give this method a try, and you will be well on the path to finding a solution. This approach of using probing questions can help you to find the root causes of many problems so you can see them from different angles, thereby enabling you to be more specific and direct in solving them.
