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. How to Save Money on Training 1) Use a live instructor. Adults learn best by doing, practicing, and experiencing. Effective instructors customize their programs to meet people’s needs, provide counsel on individual challenges, and respond to questions. Videos, CDs, and E-learning are seldom effective for primary learning. Since the greatest cost of learning is the payroll cost of the participants, you want to make sure the program delivers results.2) Hire external experts. They can speak candidly about crucial issues related… 2. Leadership W/O Communication is Like a Gun Without a Bullet-- Imppressive but It Can't Do Anything By Rick Johnson Next to people, communication is the most critical element to success whether you are in a growth mode or you are facing difficult economic times. However, when times are tough, failure to communicate has much greater consequences. Failure to communicate could accelerate failure . Communication is essential to developing trust. Trust is necessary to get people to reach down deep inside and give everything they have under the most difficult circumstances.Colin Powell stated in an interview that… 3. Stop Your Employee From Becoming Your Competitor You know the routine. You've hired an eager individual willing to come onboard and learn the business. You've taught them, trained them, worked hand in hand and side by side for 2 solid years. Then all of a sudden your employee quits for no apparent reason. To your disbelief and utter amazement, you realize that you have just wasted the last 2 years of your life. A week or so goes by and you learn that your former employee has started a similar business and there's nothing you can do to stop the… 4. How To Jump Start Your Profits and Keep Your Profits Rolling By Julia Tang There are so many ways to jump start your prifits and keep your profit rolling. These top 20 ways are essential if you want to run a successful business. 1. Offer to write exclusive articles (that means you only submit them to one place) for high traffic web sites in exchange for a link back to your site. 2. Create a positive online image. Tell your visitors about fundraisers you have sponsored or that you donate a part of your profits to charity. 3. Improve your customer service on a r… |
||||
