Business is about problems & opportunities, an ongoing string of them. Business is about identifying those problems & opportunities and creating options for solving those problems & taking advantage of those opportunities. I believe leading business people agree – of most importance, business is about people believing their efforts will lead to valuable work results and people feeling a level of satisfaction/enjoyment while they are doing their work.

With a little guidance, people can work together and prove most of us are able to agree on small improvements. And, with a little guidance, people can prove many if not most of us want to take solution-actions. These are the first [and the hardest] steps in the process of creating positive, sustainable change…I mean, change that will be of benefit not just to ‘the company’ and its clients but also to each and every person involved [and their families, who rely on them].

Leaders should provide the ‘guidance’ referred to above by organizing and facilitating small task forces.  The task force should embrace the goal of reaching consensus on small changes that will help people grow as individuals, as a team of people, and as a provider of service to clients.

The task force process: short meetings [30 minutes]…encouraging consensus on problems…facilitating consensus on small action steps of improvement…small steps of positive change…with everyone participating…with everyone buying into the actions. 

When a senior-team person’s competence is being questioned we leaders have only 3 choices, we can:

1.Be confident the person can do the job. If we select this option then we, as leaders, must help the person succeed. We cannot second guess the person’s capability and/or send signals we think the person is going to fail. We must adjust our mindsets to contain only positive thinking and roll up our sleeves and help.

2.Be confident the person cannot do the job. If we select this option then we must expedite the person’s departure. That’s in everyone’s best interest. Lengthy, unsuccessful discussions about flawed performances sour relationships, kill positive momentum, and sour the business culture. 

3.Be confused about whether the person will succeed and have a plan that will remove that confusion within a set time limit. It is OK for leaders to be confused about a senior person’s abilities as long as (1) they know they are confused, (2) they set time boundaries for removal of that confusion and (3) they set clear action plans to remove that confusion within those time boundaries. 

When we care about producing quality work on time and on budget we take the time to seek out help...that's a natural part of a continuous-improvement mindset.

Some people have that mindset; some people don't have that mindset.

Help comes in many forms and most of the time it comes from other people. Sometimes help comes from clever thinkers whom we have never heard of before. That happened to me recently when I picked up a copy of the audio book called 'Die Empty' [by Todd Henry, 2013]. This book provides some interesting and helpful perspectives and how to be more productive and achieve more success.

Here's an example:

Todd Henry's 4 Elements for Analysing Problems:

• aspirations
• affinities
• assumptions
• attributes

“Using these four elements and possibility thinking aspirations, affinities, assumptions, and attributes can help you find the edges of your problem and help you avoid barriers to progress. You can utilize them at the beginning of the project to help you generate a series of questions and you can use them frequently throughout the project to keep you from getting stuck.”

 Todd Henry

 ‘Die Empty’, (2013)

I plan to dig deep into Todd Henry's recommendations, particularly in the area of analysing problems. His work and quality thought will be helpful in many areas...here's a few that jump out at me: P=2S+O, SWOT, & project improvement.