I know using the word problem is almost considered a dirty word in many management circles. I thought I’d make an interjection while talking about project managing new companies with my ideas these two words.
Problems. I use it when I know we need to find a solution.
Challenge. It’s going to be difficult but with hard work and a bit of ingenuity we’ll succeed.
An example: We want to do social media marketing for the company. The problem is that we do not have someone to do this work. The website and marketing managers are both too busy.
Hmmm… ok, why don’t we try and find a solution. We know that the marketing manager needs to recruit someone to help her. In the meantime I can set up a Twitter account and we can ask the website manager to update it one week and the marketing manager the other. While we talk about how we can manage the workload we will also discuss our strategy. It will be a challenge, since we’re all really busy.
I know I’m pedantic but that’s part of the job description. Hopefully I’ve clearly explained why I like using problem and challenge.