Problem-Solving Success Tip: Use Your Time for Problems that are Truly ImportantLearn Management Articles on management-info.biz. Problem-Solving Success Tip: Use Your Time for Problems that are Truly Important article will help answer your questions on Management Articles.We at management-info.biz specialize in Management Articles. Management Articles at management-info.biz provides the most up to date news and articles. If you have questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
Hard as it may be to walk away once you're aware of it, just because a problem is there doesn't mean you have to solve it. Ask yourself and your colleagues, 'What will happen if we don't solve this problem?' If the answer is, 'not much,' then turn your attention to something more important. If you don't know what will happen, find out before you undertake a problem-solving project. It should be clear to you and everyone else involved that the problem is worth the effort--and expense--to fix it. Quantify the cost of the problem quickly, but as realistically as you can. Include lost opportunity costs as well as real expenses such as staff time to deal with the problem, travel expenses, etc. Use actual costs where you can; estimate where you can't. Then guesstimate what it will cost to analyze and fix it. Write your analysis down, stating all your assumptions explicitly. Get a colleague to verify that your assumptions and estimates are reasonable. Start with a rough 'order of magnitude' estimate. That may be enough to answer the question of whether you should proceed. If it's not clear, especially if the cost to solve it will be high, do a more careful analysis. If it will cost more to fix than to live with the problem, or if the number is even close, perhaps your resources (time, people, money) are better spent on other projects. If you decide to proceed anyway, you can do so with a better understanding of what you're undertaking. On the other hand, if you can demonstrate that the cost of the problem is much higher than the cost of solving it, using estimates based on reasonable assumptions, it will generally be much easier to get the resources you need. You can use your written analysis as a sales tool to help win support for your decision to proceed or not. We have to learn to distinguish those things that are truly important from those that are merely urgent. --Jerry D. Campbell
copyright 2005. Jeanne Sawyer. All Rights Reserved. |
More Articles:1. Business success strategies - 5 Things I Did Right in 2005 All in all, I'm pretty happy with how 2005 turned out. My business is taking off. I've built a solid foundation to support even more growth (which I forecast for 2006) and I've even managed to take some time off. I'd like other entrepreneurs and business owners to feel as good about their business as I do about mine, so I thought I'd take a moment to share 5 things I attribute to my successful 2005. 1. Attended seminars. This one is HUGE. Nothing beats getting out of your office and away from y… 2. Problem-Solving Success Tip: Fix the Right Root Causes By Jeanne Sawyer Identify and fix the right root causes.Complicated problems have multiple root causes, probably more than you can handle all at once. The trick is to address the important causes first. Don’t waste time or money on causes that are either insignificant in impact or only peripheral causes of the problem you’re trying to fix.Root cause identification. Use an appropriate root cause analysis tool to identify the possible causes of your problem. Which tool is best depends on the problem, but Ishikaw… 3. ISO 9001 What Records Does My Business Need To Keep? By John Oakland Which documents must I keep for ISO 9001?In addition to the legislative requirement for your business to keep certain records ISO 9001 2000 requires your business to retain other records to demonstrate compliance with its various clauses.From an ISO 9001 2000 viewpoint records are documents generated whilst operating your Quality Management System. Typical examples are records of management reviews, purchase orders, sales orders, test results and internal quality system audits.An ISO 9001 2000… 4. Shrinkage Control By Linda Carter What has been your store's shrinkage experience for the last two years? What will it be this year? If it has not been as good as it should have been, now is the time to analyze the possible causes and take steps to keep shrinkage in line this year.WHAT IS SHRINKAGE?The difference between the perpetual book inventory and the physical inventory count is called shrinkage. The book inventory is a record of what ought to be on hand in view of what has been received, what has been sold and price … |
||||
