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. What Makes a Good Appraisal Interview? By Andrew E. Schwartz WHAT MAKES A GOOD APPRAISAL INTERVIEW?Here is a tip for supervisors that will contribute to a successful appraisal interview. Give advance notice. Employees like to have advance notice of the appraisal session so that they can think about the past evaluation period from their own perspective. The prepared employee may have any number of things to share about management, the department, or organization, or barriers to their effectiveness. Also, the employee who comes to the session with a list … 2. Check Your Communication Skills By Steve Kaye Use this check list to assess your communication skills.Focus* Do you pay complete attention to others when they are speaking? (A wandering focus discourages open communication.)* Do you manage your thoughts during a conversation, focusing them on understanding what the other person is saying? (Effective listening requires more concentration than any other form of communication. If you are thinking about anything other than what the person is saying, you are defeating your ability to unde… 3. Are Managerial Controls Pulling Down Your Growth By R.G. Srinivasan Managing a new and growing business requires a vision far beyond what the average manager can even begin to comprehend or understand. This vision may be the ingredient which separates a leader from a manager.As the business grows, the top manager or the founder/owners turn control freaks as they believe they need to nurture the business at each step of its infantile existence step lest it falls and fails. They turn perfectionists and involve in every aspect of business believing that they are … 4. Relationship Building - 5 Tips and 5 Questions* By building great relationships, you will shift the baseline way up. So that when you need to manage, it will be so much easier. Think how climbing a mountain from sea level is so much harder than from a camp half-way up.And is isn't hard - it's more about focusing on people, who they are and what interests them. And that's just where you spend your time. About them - not you, not your business. Create partnerships.5 tips 1. Be natural - by being yourself, you will build relationships with ease… |
||||
