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. Don't Throw Money Away On Training - Planning Well Will Cut Costs and Increase Value We've all done it. The glossy brochure with catchy headlines promoting training courses which seem too good to miss. We either see them ourselves or employees bring them to us with a previously unknown 'need' to have this training. Before we know it a large chunk of the annual training budget has gone on courses we didn't even know existed. This sort of reactive approach to training and development costs far more than systematic training and is usually far less effective. So, how do we do this … 2. 6 Meeting Planner Tips By Carla Rieger Planning a meeting or conference is no cakewalk. Here are the top tips from expert event planners who have handled hundreds of association conferences:1. Articulate Your Goals: This may seem obvious, but you would be surprised how easy it is to forget this step. It's harder to plan and choose when you have fuzzy thinking. Here is an example of a clear conference objective. To provide attendees with an opportunity to rethink their roles in the rapidly changing library environment and to enh… 3. Creating a "Team" Working Environment By Andrew E. Schwartz TEAM DECISION MAKING: Managers who invite participation believe that people directly affected by a decision should be involved in making that decision. The effort is toward joint, cooperative decision making. The aim is to give employees a chance to have a say about things that affect them. This means giving them more control over their own work and giving up some of your own power and control.THE EFFECTS OF PARTICIPATION: As a supervisor you’d like your people to work hard. You’d like to have… 4. Conflict, Leadership, And The Leadership Talk PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required: mail to: brent@actionleadership.com Word count: 739 Summary: All leaders have to deal with conflict. The author cites three essentials you must adhere to in your dealings and describes a powerful leadership tool tha… |
||||
