The Puzzling World of Puzzles

Do you do puzzles?? Do you like to do them alone or share the experience with other people?? Do puzzles make you competitive or do they just drive you crazy?

?In 1760 John Spilsbury made the jigsaw puzzle famous by commercializing them. For the past 260 years people all over the world have experienced the joy - and pain - that goes into connecting the 100s to 1000s of pieces to create that whole picture. Puzzles continue to be a source of entertainment and intrigue because they are fun…and sometimes very difficult.

?What does it take?

I consider myself a puzzler and after connecting some dots I realized that a puzzle is a perfect metaphor to describe how we should work together in this new world.

?Making the decision to put together a puzzle is a commitment.?Today there are so many things that we just get through instant gratification – searching on the internet, a new trend on TikTok, a purchase on Amazon – but a puzzle has to be a dedication of time and effort.?You have to focus on the goal and believe that the hours you spend puzzling will be a source of fulfillment and a job worth doing well.??

?Isn’t this exactly what we want from our workers today??Time, effort, commitment, and meticulous care in connecting a series of tasks and efforts to create a perfect picture. And just like a monster puzzle, work projects are held together by their edges and by the determination, will power, and hours of work the team puts commits to.?

?Is it ever finished?

You can’t call a puzzle finished if even just one piece is missing. The whole picture has to be filled in.

A puzzle is only complete when the last piece is tapped into place, and you get the overwhelming euphoria of a job well done. Wouldn’t it be nice if that was how we approached our day-to-day projects at work? Making sure every piece is put into place and enjoying the feeling of completion?

?Hard to create; Easy to take apart

The scariest part about a puzzle isn’t how much time it takes to put it together knowing you could be spending your time doing a million other things.

?No, the scariest part of a puzzle is how easy it can fall apart. A push off the side of the table can undo days of concentration.

?It reminds me of the hard work that goes into a project – finding time, managing the details, conducting research, and staying passionate and committed. How often have you put work into a project that you believed in only to have it squashed in a two-line email? If a colleague or leader doesn’t see your vision or agree with choices your team made, the whole effort can be scrapped. All that effort just gets packed up, put in aa box and eventually taken to goodwill.

?Don’t Be Afraid – Start small?

The most important thing to remember is that old adage: any work worth doing is worth doing well. Finding the right pieces to complete your puzzle is never a bad investment of time. Remember, it's not how many pieces a puzzle has that decides victory. ?It is the investment that you make in finishing a seemingly impossible task.?

Puzzles can bring out the best in those around so don’t be afraid to ask a friend to join in. The pieces will be there - if the dog doesn’t get one - and the job will get done; satisfaction is guaranteed.

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