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Casual Articles - Solve Problems Permanently - Ask WHY
When I was a little girl my father would ask me what I thought to be very strange mind bending questions. Once asked, they would send me off on a never ending search for answers. One of his favorites that always stuck with me was…"If a camel is carrying a bag of feathers and he's carrying as many feathers as he can, can the camel carry one more feather?"Strange question, right? At six years old I exclaimed, "sure why not, it's just a feather". My father would simply s
Why?
"Because we don't have enough people"
Why?
"Because we can't recruit"
Why?
"Because our rates aren't good enough"
Why?
"Because we decided to place a ceiling on them"
Why?
"To keep our costs down"
Why?
"Because costs were eating into our profits"
Why?
"Good question"
Here you can see a whole new series of conve
Who doesn't have a business card? Business cards are the most affordable, portable, and versatile tool for self-marketing. No other medium for exchanging contact information is as readily accepted as the business card. Over the years, the role of business cards in every conceivable industry has only gained more importance. Today, a business card is no longer a means for leaving contact information. It has been turned many times into an ad, a mini-coupon, a brochure, or even a CD-rom pr
Problems don't go away unless you get to the cause - the source of them.
Repeatedly 'fixing' issues that arise takes a physical and mental toll on you
and your team. The key is to solve problems once and for all and move on.
Picture this scenario:-
Luke runs a small engineering factory, making electronic tagging systems for
retailers. His business has really taken off in the last two years and his
people are really stretched now to keep up with demand. Recently his people have
been complaining more; there have been a number of unpleasant incidents where
tempers have become frayed. Two large customers have taken Luke to task
personally because of late fulfillment of orders.
In the past Luke would have worked harder, fought his fires and got home late,
but right at the moment his wife and family have started to complain that he is
putting work before them more than ever.
Then he heard about 'Solving
Problems with Whys'.
With two of his key people, he asked them to work with him quickly, on why they were having so many little issues arising in the business - and they would use the 'Whys' process to solve them. As an example, one actual issue that they discussed early on, went as follows:-
"Our orders have started to go out late"
Why?
"Because we have too much work on for the people we have"
Why?
"Because we don't have enough people"
Why?
"Because we can't recruit"
Why?
"Because our rates aren't good enough"
Why?
"Because we decided to place a ceiling on them"
Why?
"To keep our costs down"
Why?
"Because costs were eating into our profits"
Why?
"Good question"
Here you can see a whole new series of conver
There was a time when salesmen and women were given little respect—but no longer. Companies realize how essential it is to have friendly, capable sales people on staff and, as a result, those who work in sales-related positions can secure increasingly higher salaries. In fact, you can now earn upwards of $100,000 annually through a sales-related position. In this age of the Internet, however, you may be wondering about the long-term job prospects for sales personnel. However, the fact
Picture this scenario:-
Luke runs a small engineering factory, making electronic tagging systems for
retailers. His business has really taken off in the last two years and his
people are really stretched now to keep up with demand. Recently his people have
been complaining more; there have been a number of unpleasant incidents where
tempers have become frayed. Two large customers have taken Luke to task
personally because of late fulfillment of orders.
In the past Luke would have worked harder, fought his fires and got home late,
but right at the moment his wife and family have started to complain that he is
putting work before them more than ever.
Then he heard about 'Solving
Problems with Whys'.
With two of his key people, he asked them to work with him quickly, on why they were having so many little issues arising in the business - and they would use the 'Whys' process to solve them. As an example, one actual issue that they discussed early on, went as follows:-
"Our orders have started to go out late"
Why?
"Because we have too much work on for the people we have"
Why?
"Because we don't have enough people"
Why?
"Because we can't recruit"
Why?
"Because our rates aren't good enough"
Why?
"Because we decided to place a ceiling on them"
Why?
"To keep our costs down"
Why?
"Because costs were eating into our profits"
Why?
"Good question"
Here you can see a whole new series of conve
If you have employees, you are responsible for payroll taxes. This is a term that lumps all the different forms of employment taxes into one category known as “payroll tax”. In reality, payroll taxes encompass Federal and state income tax withholding, social security and Medicare taxes (also known as FICA), Federal unemployment tax (FUTA), as well as any state and local unemployment taxes assessed. Payroll taxes are deducted each pay period from an employees gross pay. The remainin
In the past Luke would have worked harder, fought his fires and got home late,
but right at the moment his wife and family have started to complain that he is
putting work before them more than ever.
Then he heard about 'Solving
Problems with Whys'.
With two of his key people, he asked them to work with him quickly, on why they were having so many little issues arising in the business - and they would use the 'Whys' process to solve them. As an example, one actual issue that they discussed early on, went as follows:-
"Our orders have started to go out late"
Why?
"Because we have too much work on for the people we have"
Why?
"Because we don't have enough people"
Why?
"Because we can't recruit"
Why?
"Because our rates aren't good enough"
Why?
"Because we decided to place a ceiling on them"
Why?
"To keep our costs down"
Why?
"Because costs were eating into our profits"
Why?
"Good question"
Here you can see a whole new series of conve
The business world is growing more competitive by the minute. In a fast paced society such as our own, it is very important for business professionals to stay on top of their game. When trying to win over a new client, it may be necessary at times to do a little schmoozing with the corporate snobs. Corporate gift giving is a great way to show a potential client that you mean business. We are not talking about your everyday coffee mug with the company logo stamped on it. When trying to
"Our orders have started to go out late"
Why?
"Because we have too much work on for the people we have"
Why?
"Because we don't have enough people"
Why?
"Because we can't recruit"
Why?
"Because our rates aren't good enough"
Why?
"Because we decided to place a ceiling on them"
Why?
"To keep our costs down"
Why?
"Because costs were eating into our profits"
Why?
"Good question"
Here you can see a whole new series of conve
A project is like the realization of a dream. At the beginning your team is full of energy that it gained from the picture of a new world. But after a while and after some first difficulties the initial high level of energy is reduced to its normal proportions. And to implement Business Process Management (BPM) you also should scale a rather large project.BPM came to life in order to measure the performance of business processes. The term is introduced as a solution to the func
Why?
"Because we don't have enough people"
Why?
"Because we can't recruit"
Why?
"Because our rates aren't good enough"
Why?
"Because we decided to place a ceiling on them"
Why?
"To keep our costs down"
Why?
"Because costs were eating into our profits"
Why?
"Good question"
Here you can see a whole new series of conversations evolving for Luke and his
team. Instead of cursing everyone for late completion of orders, or their behaviours
getting out of control, or all and everything else which seems to be going wrong,
the discussion about rates causing there to be too few staff, has evolved into a
more general issue about costs being too high. Here the process can start again:-
"Our costs are too high"
Why?
"We don't know"
Why?
"Because we don't have the data"
Why?
"Because we've never invested in collecting it"
Why?
"Because we never thought it important"
Why?
"Because we didn't realise the impact it was having"
Why?
"Because we never knew the impact it was having on our customers and on our business"
Why?
"Because we never saw the big picture"
And from here, Luke and his team, using just 14 one-word questions, have a whole new perspective on their business and they are ready to create a whole raft of ideas and actions to move this problem to a solution - for the long term, not just the short-term.
Sometimes, there is value in bringing in a facilitator to work with your team in this way, as a 'neutral' prepared to support the process on some of these challenging 'why's'. This lets you and your team tease out and own the end-point sources of problems. And share the successes of achieving the very best solutions together.
In this example, there is a semi-strategic issue, but the technique can be used for much simpler issues which crop up day-to-day in your business.
And, of
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