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Ok gonna try a little normal posting to see how it feels. You that thing managers love to say, "Don't come to me with problems, come to me with solutions?" It's a trap — for both managers and managees.
There are plenty of problems, e.g. systemic problems, that workers are in position to be *aware* of but not in a position to *solve*.
As a manager, you *want* people to come to you with systemic problems that they can't solve, because solving systemic problems *is* your job.
If you're a manager who has relied on "don't come to me with problems, come to me with solutions" in the past, try this instead: "Why do you think I'm the right person to solve this problem?"
There's another even more radical technique that you could try. It's called "believing that the people who report to you are capable of making good decisions".
(I say radical here because it literally is counter to the central tenets of Taylorism, the most popular management theory of all time.)
Also, FWIW, workers very often do have good ideas about how to solve systemic problems but 1) they need your help, which is why they're asking you and 2) you may have trained them not to tell you about their ideas by not listening in the past — learned helplessness.
This is why another great question if you're a manager in this situation is "What would you do to try to solve this problem if you were me?" Another is "If I asked you to solve this problem and gave you a magic lamp, what would you wish for?" I know it sounds goofy but try it.
