Frustrated by "Operational Issues"

In another post (The Power of "What Else?") I had alluded to young HR Executives being frustrated by having to deal with "operational issues" almost the whole time. Frustration arising out of having to deal with "operational issues" is not confined to young HR Executives. Many people who start their career, or in the early stages of their careers, are victims of such a frustration. While in the earlier post I pleaded for having as clear an answer to the question "What else, if not this?" as possible, there is another dimension to the "operational issues." I am a bit puzzled about what makes some activities or tasks "operational?" For example, is my typing this post an "operational" matter? Or when my wife cuts vegetables and cooks our dinner, is she engaged in "operational" matters? By definition, when anyone does something, that person is performing an operation. Even if the head of a company is negotiating a large sales deal he is doing something, thus performing an operation. Shouldn't, then, every issue on which one takes actions be considered an "operational" issue? I suggest that the frustration arises out of not the issue itself that one handles, but out of the meaning that one has attached to that which is "operational." And by 'meaning' I refer to a whole world of thoughts, emotions and predispositions one creates about "operational". And such a meaning is only a conversation, not the real stuff! To handle this frustration, what one needs is to get in touch with:

1. the frustration is a result of the meaning one has attached to "operations"


2. the meaning arises only in a conversation


3. one can give another empowering meaning to "operation" by altering the conversation one has about "operations"

Fundamentally, "operational issues" do not exist by themselves - they exist only in a conversation. When I recognise that I am the author of my conversation, I can author an altered conversation that can energise me, or at least leave me not frustrated.