Take some time to consider the following questions:
- Are you focusing your limited time and resources on the right products and services: the ones that really matter to your current and potential customers?
- Are the criteria that you are applying to the time, cost and quality associated with these products and services the right ones to deliver real value to your customers?
- Are you spending your limited time and resources in the most efficient way?
- And do you have time for growth, creativity and innovation?
Do you know?
It’s all too easy to do what we do just because that’s the way things have happened, or that’s the way it’s always been. We can be very busy just getting things done and firefighting whilst losing track of the bigger picture of why we are doing what we do, and how we would do it differently were we to start afresh.
Treat every problem as a treasure!
A senior VP once entreated a few of us to treat every problem we encounter as a treasure. It’s a mindset that I now advocate to others. The nature of anything that we do is extremely complex. It’s not only a question of the individual tasks, but all the dynamics that are involved when any two or more people work together, and the processes and systems that the whole operation entails.
So it would be naïve to expect that anything we do will be problem free. In fact, each time we become aware of a problem, it gives us the opportunity to find its root cause, and put effective preventative measures in place so that that particular problem won’t happen again. It reduces the amount of firefighting we might need to do next time we attempt something similar.
So treasure those problems and better still, seek them out!