S2E6. Explosive vs Expansive Problem Solving - The Chaos of Scale

When pressure hits and problems land thud, who do you become?

In this episode of The Chaos of Scale, Andy Golding dives into a pattern that quietly shapes culture, trust, and momentum inside scaling businesses: explosive vs expansive problem solving.  

Most of us don't think we're explosively reactive… until the Slack notifications are flying, deadlines are slipping, and tension spikes. That’s where the difference between shrinking the room and expanding possibility becomes crystal clear.

Andy unpacks:

• Why “winning the argument” can cost you trust and collaboration
• How explosive reactions quietly damage scaling teams
• The mindset shift behind “everything is figureoutable”
• What it means to become a true Solutioneer
• Practical steps to pause, respond better, and solve problems without destroying relationships

This episode is a powerful reminder that every problem is doing two things at once: asking to be solved and revealing who you are under pressure.

Because in the chaos of scale, the question isn’t whether problems will come — it’s whether you’ll make things heavier… or better.

#Leadership #ScalingBusiness #CompanyCulture #ProblemSolving

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

When a problem lands in front of you, do you go explosive or expansive? Because you can solve the problem and damage the relationship, or you can solve the problem and enhance the relationship. Hello and welcome to The Chaos of Scale, the podcast dedicated to helping scaling businesses navigate the human side of growth. I'm your host, Andy Golding, and today we're talking about something that shows up every single day in scaling organizations, but we often don't name it. Expansive versus explosive problem solving. In the chaos of scale, problems aren't exactly subtle or tactful, and they quite possibly already have you surrounded. When problems land, thud. They land loudly, they land urgently, and probably when you already have a bajillion other things going on. How you respond in that moment, that split second between stimulus and response, that's where your impact is defined. The first ever episode of this podcast was about pausing for quality, one of the four core guidelines for navigating the chaos of scale. Pausing for quality, often it is that pause, that deep breath between problem thud and your response is the difference between getting explosive or becoming expansive. As always, I promise to leave you with at least one thing to think differently about and how you work with others and at least one actionable step to help you show up as a rad or even more rad human at work. You know the drill. If you find value in this episode, please like, subscribe, share, and for some extra kudos and gratitude, please leave a review. Most of us don't think we're reactive. We don't really think that we're going into attack mode. But in a scaling environment which is fast and messy and so high pressure, it is so easy to slip into explosive problem solving. And this looks like defensiveness, frustration, blame. Why wasn't this done properly? Who dropped the ball? This shouldn't be happening. And that's absolutely right and it's totally fair. It wasn't done properly. Someone did drop the ball and it shouldn't be happening, but it is. That frustration forward reaction feels justified and probably is justified. It's not wrong. It just shrinks the room. Explosive problem solving shrinks the space for possibility. It narrows options, it thins out thinking, it shuts people down. Explosive problem solving makes other people more cautious. It puts people into watch my back mode. It takes away creativity. It makes people less willing to engage. Now, if we compare that to expansive problem solving, expansive problem solving says, okay, this is messy, but it's figure outable. Expansive problem solving is based on the belief that everything is figure outable. Now, that belief changes everything. And anyone who I work with knows that I fundamentally believe that everything is figure outable. Because when you default to that thinking that we can figure this out, you don't default to blame. You default to curiosity and possibility. Now, everything is figure outable is not my default wiring. I was taught to think this way by working with some incredible people and taking the time to build the muscle of defaulting to possibility rather than explosion. And if I could rewire my thinking on this and make this my default belief, you can too if you want to. You just need to give yourself permission to change your mind. It's yours. Now, side quest for a moment. Let's talk about giving yourself permission to change your mind. I used to sit on the committee for a sports team that I played with. And one committee meeting, we were having a raging debate. Some of us on the right of the debate, some of us on the left of the debate, and we were going at it. And mid-debate, one of the guys stops and says, Hold on, pauses for a moment. You know what, guys? I've actually changed my mind on this and starts arguing for the other side. Now, you can imagine things were heated, so the rest of us kind of sat there, mouths agape, like, huh? And this I'll never forget. He looked around the room at us and said, What? I'm allowed to change my mind. It's my mind. And I was like, picture my head exploding, you know, mind exploding emoji goes here. And I was like, obviously, obviously you can change your mind. You just need to give yourself permission to. So if you would like to rewire your beliefs on everything is figure outable, you can build that muscle. And we're going to talk a little bit about how we build that muscle later, but just give yourself permission to change your mind. Back to explosive versus expansive problem solving. When something goes wrong, the expansive problem solver doesn't enter blame mode. Rather, they ask, okay, what are we working with and what can we do from here? Expansive problem solving starts with that belief that everything is figure outable. In explosive mode, problem solving often becomes a win-lose dynamic. Somebody is right and somebody is wrong, somebody wins the argument. But especially in a scaling environment where ambiguity is everywhere and multiple truths and realities are coinciding, that mindset is incredibly expensive. Because sure, you may win the argument, but you might lose buy-in and trust and collaboration and long-term momentum. So what's the real gain from explosive problem solving versus the real cost? Expansive problem solving flips this over a bit. Expansive problem solving asks, what does a win-with scenario look like? Not a win-win in a fluffy, unrealistic sense, but a win-with where the problem gets solved, the relationship stays intact, and ideally something better actually emerges from it. Expansive problem solving creates the space to ask, is there a better way to do this? What are we missing? How do we solve this and strengthen how we work together? And this matters so much in a scaling organization because you have to think a bit bigger. This is not about solving one-off problems. You're building patterns of interaction, you're setting the tone, crafting the culture, and entrenching the ways of working. Every problem is a rehearsal for and a demonstration of how you and your team will handle the next one. I'll say that again. Every single problem is a rehearsal for and demonstration of how you and your team will handle the next one. And there will be a next problem. Expansive problem solving opens up possibility. It looks for this win-with outcome, not just a fast resolution. And here's what so many people underestimate. How you solve problems is how people experience you. You might think that your reputation is built in strategy meetings or big presentations or big wins, but so much of your reputation is built in the messy moments. How do you show up when things go wrong, when the pressure is high? Who are you when all the fluff and the pump and the bravado is stripped away and you're faced with a beastly problem? Explosive shrinks the room. It burns up the oxygen of possibility. Expansive opens up possibility. Expansive seeks to win with rather than just winning. When problems land, thud, the people around you need to know. Are you safe to work with? Do you make things better or heavier? Do you escalate stress or reduce it? Explosive problem solvers may be very smart and they may even be right, but they're really, really hard to work with. People hesitate before bringing them problems. They start to filter information. They delay escalation because they're trying to avoid the explosion. And that is incredibly dangerous in a scaling environment because you don't want problems festering. Expansive problem solvers, on the other hand, they become what I like to call solutioners. They're the ones who people bring problems to early. People can trust these expansive problem solvers, these solutioneers with messy situations because they know it's going to be constructive and not destructive. They know when I bring this to you, you're going to help me build something better, not make me feel worse. And that is a superpower in relationship building, in trust building, in influence building. Expansive problem solving builds credibility. It makes you easy to work with. And being easy to work with cannot be overstated. I actually have an entire episode pending about being easy to work with because business is all about interpersonal relations. And if you're the person who's easy to work with, it will get you further than you think. Okay, so we know that expansive over explosive is the better way to go. Fantastic. We need to give ourselves permission to change our minds to make this part of our default wiring. But how do we build this muscle? What do you do when the problem lands? It's easy to say, be expansive when you're calm, but it's really hard to do that when your slack is blowing up and everything just feels urgent. Here's a couple of simple steps that you can follow to start building this muscle. And if you don't get it right every time, it's fine. Just keep going. Building a muscle takes time. Okay, thud. Problem lands. First thing you're gonna do, just catch the impulse. Just notice your urge to react. Do you want to blame? Do you want to defend? Do you want to shut it down? Just notice it. And now we're going to pause for quality. We're taking that micro gap between stimulus and response. Even if it's just a couple of seconds, take a breath. This is you not leaping to blame, defend, or shut down. This is you shifting from an explosive instinct to an expansive mindset. And then you're going to ask expansive questions. What are our options here? What would a great outcome look like? What aren't we seeing? How do we solve this and move it forward together? You're going to protect the relationship whilst solving the problem. You can be direct, you can be clear, you can ask challenging questions, but you don't need to be destructive. You're going to get the problem solved, and then you're going to ask, how did this happen? Because you absolutely do need to diagnose what happened, what went wrong, so you can avoid repetition, but do that once it's solved. So problem lands, thud, catch the impulse. That's the first thing that you're going to do is just notice your urge to react. Then we're pausing for quality, taking a breath and shifting from explosive instinct to expansive mindset. Then we're asking expansive questions. What are our options? What can we do? And only once the problem is solved are we getting into the how did this happen? And remember, be clear, be direct, ask tough questions, but don't be destructive. In the chaos of scale, problems are guaranteed, they're a part of the environment. So the question is: who are you when the problem thuds? Are you the person who shrinks the room or expands it? Are you the person who people brace for or who people turn to? Because every problem that lands in front of you is doing two things. It is asking to be solved and it's giving you a chance to show people who you are. So the next time something breaks, the next time something goes wrong, the next time a problem lands in front of you, pause. Am I about to go from explosive instinct or am I shifting to an expansive mindset? Because that tiny, tiny moment, that's where scale either gets a little bit more chaotic or a whole lot more harmonious. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Chaos of Scale. If you found it valuable, you know what to do. Please like, subscribe, share, and leave a review. If you could share this on to the people who you think would find it valuable, you could help make the Chaos of Scale more easy to navigate for all of us. Until next time, remember business growth is messy, but the human side doesn't have to be.