Most people dive in to solving problems, you hear it all the time “I know what the problem is, you are going to do this”
What? If you say something like that, you are done before you even being. Thinking like this leads you to make many errors.
You cannot solve your problems unless you have a clear understanding of what’s going on?
Go and see
The majority of people do not solve their problems because they rely on personal experiences and insights to solve their problems.
When you approach problem-solving that way you use your point of view and biases without laying eyes on what is happening.
Quit assuming you know the solution. Go and see what is really going on.
It is worth solving?
Your progress and improvement are a direct result of your efforts. Meaning, stop investing time and money into solving problems that will not get you closer to your goals. It is a waste of time and money.
Work towards your goals and objectives, this will help you get focus on high leverage outputs.
- Identify your business high value initiatives, key metrics, goals and objectives.
- Add target dates for completion and responsible personnel (by name).
- Prepare a tracker to show the progress of objectives.
- Prepare an action plan for each objective.
The customer is the only one
The voice of the customer will give you a road map as to what is important and what is not. The customer is the only one dictating what value is and what waste is.
- Identifying the customer
- Document their voice.
Moreover, there is a difference on:
- Immediate vs. ultimate customers.
- Internal vs. External customers.
- Current happy and unhappy customers.
- Heavy vs. Light customers – the Pareto approach predicts that 20% of your customers consume 80% of your product.
- Lost customers.
- Potential future customers who would be your customer if only.
There are many ways to gather VOC
- Surveys – On-Line, Mail, etc.
- Interviews.
- Focus Groups.
- Complaint departments or systems.
- Market research.
- Customer databases.
- Observation.
- Customer contracts or specifications.
To better serve your customers, you must determine you are their needs and identify what their most important issues are.
Conclusion
Ignore the “obvious solutions” instead answer WHAT is happening, WHERE is happening, WHEN is happening, WHAT is the frequency of “the problem”, and WHO is affecting to have an effective approach.
That is the most effective way to solve your problem.
Clarifying the problem is the first step of the 8 step problem solving model outlined here.
If you do not have time to go through these steps or want help, I can help you. Just click here and tell me about it here.