You Can be Great If You Really Want To

Have the courage to say no. When companies are faced with a major problem, such as something that makes a strategic customer start making angry phone calls, there is a lot of pressure to do something and do it quickly. If you are the designated problem-solver in such a situation, there’s a good chance you’ll be asked to do the impossible.

If you believe the problem as defined can’t be solved in the time-frame allowed or with the resources available, your best option is to say so right away. Accepting an assignment that you truly believe is impossible is setting yourself up for failure.

However, simply refusing such an assignment is likely to be a career-limiting move. A better approach is to say no indirectly by presenting an alternative scenario that can be successful. Of course, you’ll need to make a strong case to explain why your alternative is a better approach.

First make sure you’ve got a good problem definition and measurable success criteria. Then develop a project plan that gets you as close as possible to achieving the success criteria. Maybe the assignment isn’t as impossible as you thought. You’ve only got three variables to work with: what is to be accomplished (the definition of resolution), when it is to be finished, and what resources you have available. To solve the problem successfully, you must get these variables aligned.

For example, say the problem as initially assigned requires an improvement in on-time shipping rate to 99% in one month. When you investigate, you find the current rate is slightly less than 50%. With a gap that big, getting to 99% in one month is probably impossible no matter what resources you have. Perhaps a 10% improvement each month until you reach the 99% level is a more reasonable expectation: it does achieve significant improvement with the one month, and gets to the 99% level in what is still a fairly short period of time. In any case, you must somehow change either the due date or the improvement requirement: there are no other choices.

Copyright 2007. Jeanne Sawyer. All Rights Reserved.

Measure the right things.

It’s not enough just to measure–you have to measure the right things.

A common measurement trap is to measure something because it’s “interesting.” If knowing a measurement won’t change anything (e.g., help you make a decision, verify an assumption or prove the problem is solved), then don’t waste your time measuring it.

Another common trap in defining the problem success criteria is to lose the direct connection to the problem. Somehow it’s very easy to unintentionally expand the problem with general improvements that are good things to do, but aren’t really necessary to solve the problem at hand.

Avoid these traps: once you decide to measure something always check back by asking yourself exactly what you will do with the results. Then ask the question in reverse: if you have a particular result, will it really enable you to make your decision, verify that assumption, etc.

With problem success criteria, cross-check your proposed measurements with your problem description. Everything in the problem description should be measured by the success criteria. Everything in the success criteria should measure some aspect of the problem presented in the problem description. If they don’t match, your measurements are either incomplete, you’re measuring something unnecessary, or your problem description isn’t quite right.

HINT: “Everything necessary, nothing extraneous” should be your watchword. Measuring the right things will help make sure you solve the problem completely and don’t get sidetracked into doing other things that won’t help make this problem go away.

copyright 2005. Jeanne Sawyer. All Rights Reserved.

Meet your commitments.

Do what you promise and don’t promise what you can’t deliver. Meeting commitments strengthens relationships and builds trust. You need both to solve messy problems. If the situation changes and you have to change a commitment you made in good faith, let everyone know right away so they can make appropriate changes to their own plans. It seems obvious, but many people don’t manage to do this.

Managing your commitments successfully means you must be organized yourself, which brings us back to project management—with you being the overall project. That means you’ll need to write down all your specific projects, identify tasks, set priorities and keep track of progress and due dates. Each time you consider a new assignment, start by estimating the resources needed (mainly your time) and make sure you’ve got what you need. Don’t accept the assignment if you don’t have the resources necessary. If the new assignment is more important than some of your current projects, then get the priorities and expectations adjusted by making explicit agreements with the stakeholders in the projects getting pushed back.

Like any project, of course, you’ll need to keep updating your project plan so that it reflects accurately everything you’re working on. You’ll be able to tell more easily if you can accept a new commitment, and if anything starts slipping, you’re in a position both to recognize that it’s happening and also to do something about it.

Copyright 2007. Jeanne Sawyer. All Rights Reserved.