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. Identifying Candidates for Leadership By Michael Beitler A critical task in the succession planning process of any organization is identifying candidates. Traditionally, candidates have been identified based on past performance. While this seems logical, it is problematic in practice.Past performance always measures success in a lower-level position. What is needed in succession planning is a system to identify potential for success in a future higher-level position. The best predictive model I have found is the Leadership Pipeline Model by Charan, … 2. Supplier Sees 53% Reduction in Out-of-Spec Orders Case Study By Rick Weaver The goal of perfection is a challenge. It is often viewed as an expensive process requiring large investments. Yet one company has realized a 53% reduction in orders that have to be set aside for additional Quality Control checks. How did they do it? They used communication techniques - not capital outlay!The secret to there success revolved around team skills and communication. The company's Production Manager formed a focus group to discuss comprised of members from each department that … 3. What Does Your Staff REALLY Want? Part 2 The 2005 'Best Places to Work' program study showed that, contrary to popular opinion, employee satisfaction didn't depend on salary. The most given answer as to what makes a company a great place to work is employee empowerment. And what constitutes employee empowerment? I believe it comes down to a few basic principles, the second of which is the corporate culture. CREATE A CULTURE In the book 'Guts!: Companies That Blow the Doors Off Business As Usual,' authors Kevin and Vickie Freibe… 4. Compensation and Six Sigma Black Belts By Peter Peterka One of the more ambiguous elements of a Six Sigma project is the level and type of compensation the organization should give to its Six Sigma leaders and team members. On the one hand, setting compensation is not an integral part of any stage of a Six Sigma project; on the other hand, compensation is an important instrument to build loyalty and a sense of accomplishment that is a crucial element to the organization’s Six Sigma success. While there are no hard and fast rules for compensation fo… |
||||
