Have you ever gotten stuck? No, this is not a metaphor. I'm talking about getting really, really stuck! Like... In a truck, for instance, and the truck's not going anywhere. This happened to us in Haiti... Keep reading or watch the video below for more.

We were in Haiti, delivering food to the mountains and the satellite schools, and the truck we were travelling in got stuck. It happens to them quite a bit actually, over there, because there are no roads. They have to travel through the river, so they kind of have managed their way through the rocky areas and the dry sections of the river, and they're used to this. Whenever they get stuck, the people living in the surroundings come and help push the truck.

Now, I have to tell you what we witnessed. It was almost hilarious! At one point, I looked at all these people helping and working hard. It was 40 degrees. We were sweating, we were exhausted, and we were pushing. Everybody was working hard. Some people were pushing from the front, some people were pushing from the back at the same time. Some people were putting rocks in front of the tires and some were putting rocks behind them.

At some point, my husband said: "Wait a minute, this is not going to work." He walked up to the truck, knocked on the window and tried talking to Albert, our leader. Albert answers: No, never mind, Duff. We've done this thousands of times. We know how to get unstuck, we're good to go." My husband went: "Okay, I guess you know what you're doing." So, it kept going. Another 15, 20 minutes, pushing back and forth. We had been there for an hour, and we were still stuck!

My husband tried again: "Come on, Albert, just get out of the truck. Come and see." Albert finally stepped out, took a step back, and looked around. He understood as soon as he looked at all the people working. He said: "Huh, okay, I get it. Alright. You guys, you go over there. You put some rocks there. You remove the rocks from there." He went back in and all of a sudden, five minutes later, we were out of there.

That's what happens when you take a step back and you start observing the situation and you start working smarter. We really were working hard, just not efficiently. In our lives, in our businesses, very often, we are just working really, really hard and we are hustling, and we go full on. But sometimes, we may need to take a step back and have a look at a situation to be able to say: "Okay, wait a minute. Okay, I see now." Take the time to take a step back and to observe the situation from far back so that you can figure out if there's a better way to be doing this. Get unstuck in five minutes!

Psst...

That's exactly what I do for organizations. While we're getting all the staff together in a big room, the work stops.

But it's a time to step back, so that the team can "get out of the truck" and return with clear ideas and the tools to tackle their challenges much more easily when they get back to work after.

Check out some of my previous blog posts...