Peel the Onion

Getting to the root of a problem by investigating deeply is one of the skills that I have to use very often and one that I’m pretty good at. How I picked up the skill was the training at a young age from my ex boss who taught and required us to “peel the onion” when problem solving. 

Peeling the onion means to peel the layers off one by one. And this is what allows us to get to the true understanding of the issue and take the right action to solve the problem at the root level and not at the symptomatic level (so as to avoid recurrence). 

Peeling the onion regularly also means that we strengthen our skillset as a subject matter expert as we are across so much precious knowledge and details that might not be widely known. 

Of course, peeling onions can make us tear. So I think having the right techniques (like asking the right questions, leveraging past experiences) can help alleviate the pain of peeling the onions. 

Do you peel the onion ? And how do you peel onions literally and figuratively without tearing? Do share.

Photo credit : By me. 

Tip: I wear swim goggles if I need to peel or cut onions. 

#problemsolving #work #career #effectiveness #worktips #personaldevelopment #jenelim