Don’t Use a Cannon to Kill a Fly
3 Ways to find a solution that fits your current business challenge
Do those words from the ancient Chinese philosopher provoke in you that knowing smile, that feeling of familiarity?
We see this often in the workplace. We’ve all been witness to (and sometimes architects of) well-intentioned solutions that just don’t fit the challenge at hand. It could be a fix that’s over-engineered or ridiculously expensive, an idea with strong risks of collateral damage, or worst of all, a solution that just doesn’t solve the original problem.
Why is this the case? It seems odd, since generally everyone in the organization wants improvement. Employees want to minimize the mundane, and work smarter. Managers want efficiency and improved output. Investors want better returns. We all want to solve the problems we face. (If you don’t…..well…… *awkward silence*……)
The good news: Confucius gave us the roadmap! The bad news: Even if we can read Ancient Chinese, we’re not always following it.
Never fear. We’ve spent some time thinking about how we could have made Confucius smile, by finding solutions that fit.
1.It starts with understanding!
Physically go there. Visit the location where the work happens every day, and understand how it is getting done by talking with the process participants. Ask How, Ask What, Ask Who, Ask Why, and Ask Why Not!
Rule of thumb: Clarify the challenge together. Can you describe it in a single sentence?
2.Visualize and Organize the challenge before working on the improvement
Draw pictures! People naturally respond well to visual cues and images. Plus it’s fun to draw stick figures.
Visualizing is an excellent way to understand a process from start to finish. It avoids our tendency to jump to quick conclusions that can result in unintended consequences. It’s powerful if you’re working in different locations or with diverse cultural or language backgrounds.
Your goal here is mutual understanding. Collaboration is often what leads to those unexpected, juicy light-bulb moments.
3. Now harvest the ideas and improve together
This is the moment to order a pizza or two, sit down and discuss the insights. You might need to do this a couple of times to allow some time in between for reflection.
Solutions reached together are the most rewarding (and pizza is awesome).
And most importantly you’ll all get a solution that fits.
Andrew works with Optimum Output, the makers of theBPR.com, and strong believers in Continuous Improvement.
Contact him at andrew@optimumoutput.com
