Victimization ratio

ghostweather ->Berkun blog -> next-microsoft: Victimization ratio:

Number of Problems you are powerless to solve = Victimization Ratio Total Number of Problems you are impacted by Feeling powerless to resolve something you see as a serious problem sure is frustrating. What can one do?

• Ignore it — the least likely to work out, since it’s still there and you still think it’s a problem. It’ll just gnaw at you every time you have to notice it.
• Redefine it as not ~~a~~ your problem — this might work sometimes. It’s the mental exercise implied by the old saying about having the serenity to accept the things you cannot change.
• Fix the problem locally — Perhaps the problem is something affecting an entire organization but there is some way to fix it for a smaller group. An example of this kind of solution is deploying a workgroup wiki and not trying to attack an organization-wide problem with documentation.
• Attempt to fix the problem — figure out who DOES have the power to fix the problem and try to convince them to do so. This one can either work out well or result in even deeper frustration. It may result in being enlightened as to why things are the way they are — perhaps your picture was incomplete and what you saw as a problem is not when viewed with more perspective. Or at least it may give you some historical reason for how things got the way they are and why it might take a while to change.

Which approach is best depends on the problem.