Lean
Tip #676 - Find the lesson or opportunity within the problem.
There
is almost always a good side of a problem. Perhaps it alerts us to a great way
to improve our business. Or teaches us how our lives perhaps aren’t as bad as
we thought. Finding this more positive part of the problem reduces its negative
emotional impact and you may even start to see the situation as a great
opportunity for you. When you are faced with a problem ask yourself: How can I
use this? What is the good thing about this? What can I learn from this? What
hidden opportunity can I find within this problem?
Lean
Tip #677 - Use the 80/20 rule when problem solving.
Use
80 percent of your time to find solutions and only 20 percent to complain,
worry and whine. It might not always be easy but focusing your energy, time and
thoughts in this way is much more beneficial to you and others than doing the
opposite.
Lean
Tip #678 - Break down the problem into smaller pieces.
Completing
a task or solving a problem can seem overwhelming and impossible if you take it
all in at once. To decrease anxiety and think more clearly try to break the
problem down. Try to identify the different things and people it consists of.
Then figure out one practical solution you can take for each of those pieces.
Try those solutions. They may not solve the whole problem immediately. But they
might solve a few pieces of it. And then you can keep trying other solutions
for the rest of the pieces until there are none left.
Lean
Tip #679 - Gather some good knowledge about the problem you are solving.
Information
about your problem can often decrease that uncertain anxiety and fear we face
when we are challenged with something. Knowledge wisps away the clouds of fear
around a problem. And we often find that the problem might not be as bad as we
thought.
Lean
Tip #680 - Focus on what you can change – the future.
Discussion
about what happened in the past and providing examples may be necessary for
understanding, but it is not to convince the other person about your rightness
or to defend yourself. Hindsight is useful in reflection and learning but not
solving the problem. Focus on what you
can change in the future to prevent the problem.
Lean
Tip #681 - Ask For Employee Input.
Eliciting
experienced viewpoints from various levels within your organization helps you
plan effectively. For example, practical consequences that are immediately
apparent to employees on the ground might not occur to management.
Lean
Tip #682 - Delegate Responsibilities So Employees Are Empowered.
Distributing
power gives everyone a stake in the success of a change initiative. Otherwise,
employees might feel plowed under and helpless, which could lower worker morale
and jeopardize the initiative.
Lean
Tip #683 - Acknowledge Your Staff On Their Achievements.
A
pat on the back, some words of praise, and giving a note of credit to the
employee / staff member at personal level with some form of broad publicity can
motivate the staff a lot. Make it a point to mention the staff’s outstanding
achievements in official newsletters or organization’s journal. Not only
acknowledge the employee with highest contribution, but also acknowledge the
employee who meets and over exceeds the targets.
Lean
Tip #684 - Give The Employees Learning Opportunities.
Employees
should consistently learn new skills on the job. It has been well said by
someone that with people hopping jobs more often than required and
organizations no longer giving job security to employees, the young blood
employees specifically realize that continuing learning is the best way to
remain employable. Opportunities should be given to the employees to develop
their skills and competencies and to make best use of their skills. Link the
staff goals with the organizational goals.
Lean
Tip #685 - Set An Example For Your Employees.
Be a role model for your staff. The staff
would learn from what you do and not from what you say / claim. The way you
interact with your customers and how do you react later after the interaction
is over have an impact upon the staff. Employees more closely observe your
non-verbal communication (gestures, body language). Being unpunctual, wasting
the organization’s capital, mismanaging organization’s physical equipments,
asking the staff to do your personal work, etc. all have a negative impact on
the staff. Try setting an example for your staff to follow.
Lean
Tip #686 - People change for something better rather than to avoid something
worse
Threats
are fine for determining behavior, but they just don't create real change. Here
are two approaches that don't work: "You had better do this, or it's your
job." "If we can't figure out how to do this, we'll be out of
business." Instead, realize that lasting change comes from within — from
the heart, from the spirit. To create lasting organizational change, you must
develop a vision of a better work life — a vision that people can really
believe in.
Lean
Tip #687 - Processes are really just ideas
Most
change efforts require changes to organizational processes, and we have some
great tools for representing processes. The tools are too good, though — we
sometimes forget that processes have no physical manifestation. Processes are
just ideas, and ideas exist only in our minds. So if a process is to change,
what is in people's minds must change — their ideas about the processes, and
how they, as people, relate to the processes and to each other.
Lean
Tip #688 - Change your change process
If
you get better at making changes in your organization, and if you keep at it,
your organization will soon be a top performer. Why? So few organizations
succeed at making lasting change, that it doesn't really take much to become a
top performer. It looks like it takes a lot, because lasting change is so hard
to do. To make change easier to do, invest first in getting better at changing
things.
Lean
Tip #689 – Space your changes to avoid collisions
If
your organization is just beginning to move out of the Chaos of one change
effort, and you zap it with a new Foreign Element from another change effort,
you'll slow progress on the first change effort. Space things out to give the
organization time to integrate and Practice previous changes.
Lean
Tip #690 - Expect change to take longer than you expect
Recognize
that in your own mind, you've already made the change. You've thought it
through, and you know where you want things to go. But nobody else has — well,
hardly anybody. Getting everyone to move to where they will want to go will
take time. And we always underestimate how long it takes. Always.
