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. Service Businesses Can Learn a Lot from Manufacturing By Lance Winslow Many service businesses appear to be operating efficiently enough. But are they really, having been in the service business and worked along side the Manufacturing Sectors of many an industry, it is amazing the insight into true efficiency one can get.For instance an interesting thought exercise is to study and apply the Finite Capacity Scheduling Models of manufacturing to a service business. I did this for my company and saw its many cross over uses in the Mobile Car Washing service sector. … 2. A Management Strategy By Peter Hunter I witnessed some interesting behaviour from one of our premier management schools this summer. A behaviour that I have since discovered is not uncommon.This summer I met the PA of an emminent professor at a business school.I had met her on several occassions before and knew her to be a bright chatty woman who always enjoyed passing the time of day.On this occassion when I asked her how her week was going she looked at me and I could see that she wanted to smile but the muscles in her face wou… 3. The Difference Between Managers and Leaders By Eric Garner It is often difficult to understand the difference between managers and leaders. Do managers lead? Do leaders manage? To understand how these two concepts are distinct yet different, here are 7 ways to understand them.1. Course and Steering. The word "leadership" comes from the Old English word "lad" for a "course". A "lode" is a vein that leads or guides to ore; a lodestone is a magnetic stone that guides; the lode-star is the name for the star that guides sailors, the Pole star. The word "ma… 4. Creating Advisory Boards By Linda Henman There is no substitute for soliciting the opinions of the executive team, the people who will be most affected by change or its absence. However, often the answers to complicated questions don’t lie within those most affected. Frequently the CEO will need to look outside the organization for advice and wisdom. Sometimes this comes for a Board of Directors, a body of individuals that has the duty of influencing a company’s direction. Members of this board have a fiduciary responsibility to r… |
||||
