Problem Solving

Do you have business challenges that tend to hang around from week-to-week, month-to-month or even one year to the next?  Many businesses experience this challenge.  Why does this happen?

Business owners often operate in “ fire-fighting “mode.  Problems bubble up,  and you feel like you need to address the ‘urgent’ matters so you can cross it off your to-do list.  You do not give much thought to whether it really is a critical issue or one that can be ignored or delegated to someone else to solve.

It could also be that when your team meets to discuss issues, they fail to solve anything.  The meeting is adjourned and there are no specific action items with persons responsible and due dates assigned and at the next meeting it comes up again with little or no progress (or accountability).

High performing teams set aside time weekly to identify, prioritize and solve the most pressing issues facing the business.  They spend time getting to the root cause of the issue so that everyone understands the facts and the ‘whys’ underlying the issue.

Then the team discusses and debates possible solutions and assigns responsibility to members to execute.  This approach has many advantages.

·       It increases communication of issues across all departments and areas of the business.

·       You get different perspectives from everyone at the table as to the real issue and potential solutions.

·       You get better buy-in across the team because everyone is included in the problem solving.

·       Ultimately, you will come up with better solutions to the issues discussed.

At your next management meeting, document the critical issues facing your team. Then spend time discussing and crafting solutions to the highest priority issues on your list.  Make sure that agreement includes next steps, timing, and who is responsible.  Each time you meet this list should be updated, re-prioritized, and spend time talking about  creating solutions.  Using this approach consistently will allow you to move the business past obstacles that have never seemed to get resolved in the past.