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. Delegation For Managers: What Should You Do And What Should You Delegate? As a manager, you're expected to decide what needs to be done, gather the resources to do it, and then decide who does what. Okay, managing is a little more than that, but it certainly does include setting goals, gathering resources, and delegating tasks. Now, if you're like many managers, there sometimes isn't any clear line between the work you think you should do, and the work you think your staff should do. In fact, you may not be a 'pure' manager (is there such a thing?) in the sense that y… 2. Allowing Employees Responsibility By Andrew E. Schwartz Merely assigning a task with detailed instructions is not effective delegation. An employee cannot grow without the freedom to make decisions on how the job should be done. Managers must also be aware that only through the conjunction of responsibility and authority can the desired results be achieved. Additionally, a delegate must be held accountable for his or her actions.After a manager has delegated a task to a subordinate, he or she must not take it back, make changes in the assignment, o… 3. The Enemy is Out There - Learning Disability #2 This is my second article of a series, based on the seven learning disabilities identified by Peter Senge in his book 'The Fifth Discipline.' An organization's success is usually limited due to the learning disabilities found within it. These learning disabilities keep companies repeating the same mistakes time and again and prevent them from taking advantage of new opportunities. 'The Enemy is Out There' is not a problem confined to organizations but also to individuals in their daily lives. I… 4. Putting into Place Project Management Processes for SMEs (Small/Medium Businesses) To many SME managers, the majority of project management literature can seem overwhelming, complex or downright inapplicable to their business environments. However, fast moving SMEs inevitably at some point of their development face the challenge of putting into place project management processes in order to handle their growth and/or improve the products or services that they provide. Oftentimes the major added value of SMEs is their agility and ability to quickly bring to market products or … |
||||
