In Defense of "It Is What It Is"

I've recently heard people mocked for saying “it is what it is”, but I like working with people who regularly point it out! This kind of acceptance is like base camp on the way up a mountain of problems to solve.

One of my greatest mentors often used the phrase "embrace reality" during tough meetings. It was such a great way of encouraging us to accept the situation for what it was without any shoulda-woulda-coulda thinking poisoning the well. He was constantly reminding us that the only way to solve a problem is to accept it for what it is first.

"It is what it is" can be the very best thing to say when faced with a challenge. Too often we are tempted to wish things were different and that gets in the way.

"We are where we are and we have to start from where we are."

This attitude has a healthy relationship with the past, unlike some of the default thinking human minds seem to get sucked into. The past may be a useful reference if we seek to learn from it but we also need to let it go.

On some level, solving problems is all we really do. And at work, that's how we generate value. The best problem solvers focus on the now and build the future.

Consider the opposite of "it is what it is": "it isn't what it is". Plain denial. How often have you seen that take hold in someone's thinking? How many "solutions" don't work because they fail to see things as they are? How many companies are doomed by the failure to admit their market has changed?

"Say it ain't so" is also the enemy of problem solving. The fact we don't like the way it is does not affect its truth value and no amount of wishful thinking is ever helpful.

Perhaps most harmfully, we can be tempted by "it is what it was". People, organizations and businesses get stuck in the past all the time. What worked yesterday does not necessarily work today and is doomed at some point in the future.

So when we hear someone say "it is what it is", let's take it fully on board, let go of the past and get on with building the future.