Without challenges, your business would cease to exist. After all, you began your business in response to a need and you continue it for the same reason. However, just as your customers’ needs change over time, so do your business’s. Your competition improves, technology changes, and your employees come and go. In order to stay in the game for the long haul, you need to find new ways to satisfy your customers, improve the efficiency of your processes, and maintain a healthy profit margin.
As you strive to accomplish your goals, you will encounter challenges along the way. Sometimes the challenges are numerous and you don’t know where to start. All the problems compete with each other and you must determine which one is the most pressing, which steps you need to take to solve it, and how to get your staff to support your efforts.
To begin, recognize that problems come in two forms. They can be either a barrier to accomplishing something (as in, “we can’t possibly produce 20,000 units per week with our existing equipment”) or as an opportunity to do something better (“we need to reduce the cost of processing purchase orders by 20%”). All challenges share the common theme of a desire to do something tomorrow that can’t be achieved today. The easy part is identifying the challenge. The trickier part is coming up with the detailed solution.
Before you start to work on a solution, you need to make sure everyone is “on board” with you. Often, your colleagues (especially from other departments) disagree on what exactly is and isn’t a problem, can’t identify the steps to solve the problem, or don’t know when the problem will “end.” To ensure that the right challenges are tackled and logically solved, follow these tips so you can cross off your problems one by one.
Tip #1: Have a clearly articulated mission statement.
“We need to reduce costs” is not a good mission statement. It is too vague to execute because it is unclear what exactly the cause of the problem is and when it will be completed. Create a mission statement for each challenge that is clear and realistic. Include what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, and what measure will be used to evaluate its success. A good mission statement might look something like this: “We need to reduce the cost of shipping orders by 50% by July 1st, while ensuring that the orders are delivered promptly—100% of the time.” This statement encompasses all the necessary elements of a good mission statement and gives your staff a clear goal.
Tip #2: Have a consistent understanding of the problem.
When solving a large problem that involves multiple departments, you often find that each group has their own agenda. They may not even agree that there is a problem. To get everyone’s support, have them all involved in developing the mission statement. Don’t be surprised if you find “resisters” who don’t want to solve the problem because it means a significant change to the status quo. Include everyone who will be involved in the project, even if they initially resist. You can usually get the support of resisters if they contribute their two cents to the mission statement. They will feel included as part of the solution from the beginning.
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