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. Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: Ideas for Everyday Training By Josh Greenberg This article relates to the Training competency, commonly evaluated in employee satisfaction surveys. It tells the story of a group of team leaders who worked together to find ways to use information sharing and communication to provide valuable employee training. A Gallup poll conducted in 1998 reported that eight out of 10 employees said they would be more likely to stay with their present employer if they were offered more or better training. Specifically, the questions included in this com… 2. Change Happens: Change and Transition Management for the Individual By L. John Mason Life change is unavoidable. The pace of change has increased to a record rate with the latest innovations and information technologies. Our body's primitive response mechanism has not been able to keep pace and we are living with "overwhelm" as a daily companion. We do not have time to adapt at a genetic level, so we must learn to use behavioral adaptations to survive and thrive.Each of us is a unique person with our unique habitual response to stress. Some of us respond to stress with anger, … 3. Getting the most from appraisals - from both sides Does your organisation have one of those annual ‘occasions’ that few look forward to: the annual appraisal or performance review? How do you look forward to it? I wonder how people talk about it before and after? Are appraisals worth doing? If done properly – yes. If done poorly – no!!!Why have appraisals? When carried out properly they can achieve a number of benefits for all parties. The organisation, the manager and the appraisee can: establish current levels of performance, and the organisat… 4. OJT - On The Job Training By Christopher J Thomas IntroductionManagers have two powerful ways of improving the performance and productivity of their subordinates, which are counseling and on the job training.Counseling is the process of helping a subordinate define and resolve personal problems that effect performance or in order to develop a good attitude to work.On the job training is the process of explaining, demonstrating and the structured supervision of specific skills or particular tasks. It is similar to the teaching process. On the … |
||||
