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&lt;p&gt;Russell Bishop wants you to take responsibility for your job.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In an economic climate where employees are doing the work of two and three people, that may not come as a welcome message. But Bishop, an editor and columnist for The Huffington Post and author of &lt;em&gt;Workarounds That Work: How to Conquer Anything That Stands in Your Way at Work&lt;/em&gt;, insists in the book that taking control will result in less stress, more support, and a hefty deposit in your &quot;contribution bank&quot; on the job&amp;mdash;which, he promises, will make you look &quot;like someone who matters to the company.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The extra effort will also pay big dividends toward your ability to make things happen at work&amp;mdash;no matter how scared of change your boss is, or how full your inbox of busy work is.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We sat down with Bishop to get his thoughts on workarounds, which he describes as a temporary, imperfect means to movement.  But his suggestions for your approach to setbacks may cause lasting ripples of results -- at work and beyond.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. Do What You Can First&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Lots of people in this world see something that&amp;rsquo;s not working the way they want it and, they don&amp;rsquo;t even ask the first question,&quot; Bishop claims&amp;mdash;the question being what you can do to improve the situation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img class=&quot;embeddedObject&quot; src=&quot;http://www.vault.com/VCM/blogs/workarounds.png&quot; alt=&quot;Workarounds that work cover&quot; align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Though it does require some effort at the output, trying out a solution independently pays major dividends. First, taking the wheel will help you feel more relaxed and in control&amp;mdash;which will put you in a much better mental state to respond to firedrills.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And second, if you ultimately do need support from your boss or team to make a change, you&#39;re more likely to get your way. &quot;If you&#39;re going to invest, why not invest in your own contribution capital?&quot; says Bishop. &quot;You&#39;re going to look like a very different animal than the &quot;wait to be told what to do&quot; person.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. Do What Matters&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you feel that you&#39;re already too overburdened to fix bigger problems, it might make sense to take care of the more impactful actions first.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;If you&amp;rsquo;re overwhelmed, take a look at all the things on your plate and ask, what value shows up if I do it?&quot; suggests Bishop. &quot;There may be things that just don&amp;rsquo;t have any value and it&amp;rsquo;s pretty obvious, and I can take them off the plate by myself.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It&#39;s also a low-risk way to influence change around the office. Says Bishop, &quot;I can go, &amp;ldquo;Hey boss&amp;mdash;I&amp;rsquo;m trying to get more of the low-value work off my plate so I can focus on the high-value stuff... but what about this stuff? I&amp;rsquo;m not sure. It doesn&amp;rsquo;t look like it has the value, and it would probably be good to get rid of it.&amp;rdquo; Once again, I look like a problem solver.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3. An Object in Motion Stays in Motion&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Don&#39;t discount the small tasks, advises Bishop&amp;mdash;use them strategically to ease into the big stuff.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;I have a list called &quot;mind like mush,&quot; he says . &quot;When my energy starts to lag and my brain is foggy, I just go to &quot;mind like mush&quot; and start ticking off some of those dumb little things,&quot; he says--which can include anything from cleaning out your inbox, returning a call, or even organizing your desk. &quot;If you do two or three or four of those things you go, Oh--this is good! I&#39;m getting things done! And now you&#39;ve got more energy.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For more on workarounds, read the full interview with Russell Bishop&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Cathryn Vandewater, Vault.com&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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