Solving Business Challenges
It’s said that, “When the going is tough the tough get going”. I’m rephrasing it as “When the going is tough, winners first think, plan and then get going”. Often in movies we see the hero, surrounded on 16 sides by the villain and his henchmen. The easiest way out is to bash them all in one single shot as they keep coming and move forward to meet the key challenger. Does this happen in real life? Can we merely bulldoze our way against problems and challenges? Do we suddenly start possessing super-human powers? For most of us the answer is a sad, no. But then why do we act on impulse and start fighting on all directions? Little do we realize that the problems are like a hydra, you cut down one and two other grow in its place. They always keep cropping up and keep coming at you.
In business we face multiple problems and challenges. For instance, irate customer, unproductive employee, mounting debt, unpaid bills, lack of orders etc. We see the problems superficially and act on impulse. We end up spending most of our energy solving the least problems and when the bigger one comes, we give up easily. We often console ourselves stating, the problem was unsurmountable. Remember like in war, the minions are sent in first to test you. They may make the maximum noise and cause the maximum trouble but they can never take away your life. If you focus on only those minions you’ll deplete your energy pretty fast and end up losing.
War is a series of battles, you needn’t win all battles to win the war, you just should know which battles will win the war. Like I said earlier, “When the going is tough, winners first think, plan and then get going”. It is very important to take your time to think. Each one of us have to work with ourselves at our speed. There are 5 steps to solve problems and challenges –
1. Identify: Start by listing out all your problems and challenges. Go to the root cause by drilling down to the last part. The solution most often lies in the last part. For e.g., sales isn’t happening – is it because of pricing, is there a sufficient Lead pipeline, are the leads qualified properly, can the sales executive close the sale etc. List out all possibilities and identify the single biggest problem area. Likewise do it for all the other challenges.
2. Classify: There are two major types 1. Long term and 2.Short term and two further subtypes a) Recurring (e.g. monthly salaries) and b) One time. For e.g. paying monthly salaries on time is short-term recurring, paying hand loan is short-term one time, Year on year business growth is long-term recurring, changing business model is long-term one-time. Each business will have its own dynamics. Just be truthful when you classify.
3. Prioritize: Create a master list of all your problems in descending order of priority. Remember, always solve the biggest problem first. There will be other problems and challenges nipping at you. Don’t negate them, just allocate your time and energy proportionate as per its priority.
4. Recognize: Sometimes the biggest elephant in the room might be yourself. In the order of priority if you are there tackle that immediately. Often we fool ourselves stating “It’s just the situations, I can change anytime, and I’ll solve the other problems first”. If you can’t solve your own problem now, then how can you solve other problems?
5. Iterate: Review your list periodically and repeat the process. A word of caution, periodically doesn’t mean daily, it means review the list when you solved few problems completely.
To conclude, I would like to leave you with two thoughts – know which battle will win the war and address the elephant in the room. Go now and keep solving the problems and challenges.
