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. Contract Management Software: the Solution to the Problem of Coordination By Joe Miller Charles Petrie, from Stanford, released a short article entitled “The Problem of Coordination,” which highlights 4 categories in which businesses find it difficult to connect:InteroperabilityAgent Communication Semantic Unification CoordinationThough this article refers to a specific type of business, its principles are just as applicable to any business, especially when collaborating on a contract. Contract collaboration and management is difficult in any business, and the negotiations can g… 2. The Power of the Contract in Performance Management By Allan Mackintosh An essential step in managing the performance of salespeople is that of establishing a sound and agreed contract between manager and the salesperson. A contract in this context is simply an agreement between the manager and the salesperson as to how best they are going to work together. It is a chance for each party to outline expectations, hopes and fears and is a superb opportunity for both the manager and salesperson to fully understand each other in terms of personality style, motivators a… 3. Ten Business Reasons Why Asking for Help Works By Martin Haworth In fact, bringing your people - any of them - into your confidence and asking for help, is a very powerful tool indeed. The form of words' "I need your help", works best. Here are Ten Reasons why this is:-You Appeal to Emotions By asking an 'emotional' question you become very open and honest, which makes your people want to help you - this is a positive and not a 'feeling sorry' thing. It's a very natural reaction from them.You Value Others Then they feel that you find at least something wort… 4. A Facilitator's Guide to Running a Stakeholder Analysis Workshop By Tony Marven This facilitator’s guide to running a stakeholder analysis workshop is for people whose success depends on getting other people involved with their objectives.It contains two exercises, one to work with stakeholder groups, and one to emulate stakeholders where it is not easy to bring them all together. The aim of both is to engage stakeholders in dialogue, brainstorming and decision-making to secure their buy-in to an idea, project, or plan.There are five key principles underpinning success in… |
||||
