| |
| |
|
Management Information |
|
|
|
Problem-Solving Success Tip: Test Your Assumptions About Everything
Test your assumptions about everything. Assumptions have a way of creeping into all parts of a problem-solving project. They're often wrong, which can lead to a lot of wasted effort and even cause a problem-solving project to fail entirely. It's very easy to take a strongly stated assertion as true, especially if it's the boss who makes it. Remind everyone involved to be skeptical and on the watch for untested assumptions. Problem definition. Check the facts first to be sure that you and your team understand the problem the same way, and that you have data to confirm that the problem is important. Testing assumptions about the problem definition could include interviewing participants, collecting measurements, creating flow charts of what really happened, etc. Organizing your project. Don't assume that the resources you need to solve the problem will automatically be available to you. Solving a messy problem is a project. Treat it that way by developing a project plan, obtaining sponsorship, getting commitment to participate from key players, etc. Root Cause Analysis. This is a favorite spot for untested assumptions to show up, especially if you use a root cause analysis method based on brainstorming. Once you've got a list of possible causes, be sure to collect data, devise tests or do whatever you have to verify which causes are real. Choosing solutions. Test assumptions about proposed solutions by answering the questions: "How likely is the approach to eliminate a root cause of this problem" and "How practical is this approach (do I have the resources to actually do it and can I achieve the solution in an appropriate amount of time)?" Testing assumptions throughout the problem-solving process will greatly improve your chances of solving the right problem successfully. There is nothing so deceptive as an apparent truth. copyright 2005. Jeanne Sawyer. All Rights Reserved. Jeanne Sawyer is an author, consultant, trainer and coach who helps her clients solve expensive, chronic problems, such as those that cause operational disruptions and cause customers to take their business elsewhere. These tips are excerpted from her book, When Stuff Happens: A Practical Guide to Solving Problems Permanently. Find out about it, and get more free information on problem solving at her web site: http://www.sawyerpartnership.com/.
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Eliminate Performance Anxiety Forever You've had many years of training in your craft as a performer, singer, actor etc. but if you still feel haunted by the ravages of Performance Anxiety your career may be in serious jeopardy. To Outsource or Not to Outsource In these days of restricted head count and tight budgets, the question of whether to outsource or hire in-house staff is more critical than ever. The technical publications function, however vital, is undergoing more scrutiny and also facing greater challenges than ever before. 10 Fool Proof Ways To Intensify Your Profits 1. Create benefit intensifiers for your list of ad copy benefits. Why Outsourcing Could Be The Best Thing You Do For Your Business While it's probably not true to say that the traditional 9-5 job is on its way out, it IS true that more and more businesses these days are starting to see the value of outsourcing the jobs they can't cover themselves. Things like copywriting, PR, programming - even secretarial and admin support - are being outsourced to freelancers working from home or running their own business. The Myth Of Relationship Selling Revealed At Last The second you quit being the 'best deal' for your customer, he'll drop you like a hot potato. Regardless of how many lunches you've bought him or birthdays you've remembered. Creating Advisory Boards There is no substitute for soliciting the opinions of the executive team, the people who will be most affected by change or its absence. However, often the answers to complicated questions don't lie within those most affected. Dont Wait for Tax Time to Look at the Bottom Line A curious thing happens to entrepreneurs in the spring of every year. They wake up one day and realize they had better figure out how much money they made last year so they can pay their taxes. 5 Ways to Work More Effectively With Your Administrative Assistant Stop hiring new administrative support staff. And learn how to retain your existing administrative staff. Steps in Using the Critical Incident Technique STEPS IN USING THE CRITICAL INCIDENT TECHNIQUE:1) The incident. Read, review, or assume roles. The "Better People" Fallacy It's easy enough to convince your own staff that better people will prevail, even against the odds. It's what they want to hear. Just The Facts Attitudes are more important than facts. Dr. Managing the Human Resource Project We obtain strategic results by aligning HR mission, vision and values. The following overview highlights a macro approach to project management. Organizing The Information Putting a piece of paper in a file folder is easy; finding it again is the hard part. There are ways to make your files easier to use and your papers easier to find. How to Hire the Right People One of the biggest challenges any business owner or manager has is hiring the right people. I've recently discovered a simple, inexpensive yet very effective way which will help you get it right. Online Business Peace of Mind Is your online business disaster-proof? Online businesses face a unique set of challenges. Unlike our offline counterparts, we must worry about hackers, credit-card fraud, loss of data, virus attacks, websites going down and more. Organisational Culture for Continuous Improvement I have been working with leading Business Improvement guru, Tim Franklin, preparing the PR for his latest book which offers an introduction to Continuous Improvement (CI) at beginner level, encompassing Lean, TQM, Six Sigma and the other related methodologies of CI.He was developing an analogy of a geographic expedition to describe Continuous Improvement. Lateral Thinking, Logical Thinking, Applied Creativity Certain processes enhance creative output and others enhance innovative output. Defining creativity as problem identification and idea generation and innovation as idea selection, development and commercialisation, this article will tackle stages two and three using the three-stage process of lateral thinking, logical thinking and applied creativity. Performance Management Made Easy Performance Management is a process that both employer and employee often fear!Why is this so!There is much misinformation about the performance management process and performance appraisals in management circles today. We often think that best practice demands that we must performance appraise 'no matter what'. Phone Sex is Bad for Business On August 3rd/2005, Reuters reported that a German man had colluded with a phone sex operator to defraud his employer's company out of approximately 16,000 Euro or almost 20,000 US dollars, by making 160 phone calls over a year and a half from work. He apparently split the profits 50/50 with the phone sex operator. Humor in Business With the advancement of computer simulators, anybody can repeat all the business routines before he goes to the field, and have the opportunity of relaxing from the tedious work with numbers. The businessman can concentrate more on the human factors: The Customer Service, the relationships among fellow workers, and self care.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
