The Power of "What Else?"

Many of us find ourselves in situations that we don't want to be in. And, these days, such situations seem to be more frequent to more of us. The other day I was in a meeting with young HR Executives. Many of them were frustrated that day after day they were spending almost their entire time at work on 'operational issues.' They were not ok with that. They could not express their frustration to their bosses (heads of business units they were 'handling' the 'HR' of.) I also come across many women employees who were unable to manage work-life balance - they had to work too many hours, leaving little time for their family. Or software engineers who don't want to do the jobs they are assigned (like maintenance, testing etc.) And there are these software project managers who hate managing people in their teams. Add to this teachers who have to teach subjects they are not equipped to or unwilling to teach. This list can go on and on. Interestingly, few of these (frustrated souls who are in situations they don't want to be in) find it extremely hard to answer the question, "If not this, what else?" Maybe, they have not even considered the "what else" - at least not seriously enough or deep enough. All that they seem to know is "not this" but have, if at all, a very vague idea of "what else?" Just imagine that someone comes to you and says, "I don't like what I am doing." And you genuinely want to support that person and ask, "Ok, if you don't want to do this, what else would you like to do?" The person does not have a clear answer to give you. Where do you go now? How will you ever get to support her? If you are that person who knows "not this" but has little clue of the "what else?" How can any one support you? A question that comes to mind is this: Why would people not be able to articulate the "what else?" Is it that they don't know the options? Is it that they don't want to take the rersponsibility for the answer they may come up with? Or is it that they are stuck in the 'doing' instead of focusing on the results they are after? Or is it just that they are not accustomed to even ask the very powerful question, 'What else?"