How much time do you devote to solving problems, and how much to stopping them from happening again?
Managers are rewarded for their ability to solve problem. Most enjoy identifying why mistakes have happened and working out how to best resolve them.
But too much focus on resolving existing issues takes valuable time and effort away from preventing the issues arising in the first place. It also keeps you stuck in the past.
Look at the banking crisis: attention is increasingly centred on why our banking leaders made such ridiculous decisions and how they can be made to pay for their errors. There seems to be relatively little mind space being given to how we can prevent future reoccurrences.
I agree that there should be no rewards for failure, and that Sir Fred Goodwin’s pension goes against any sense of fairness, but I don’t want a witch-hunt against the banking bosses to blind us to the real work.
I don’t want the Prime Minister’s time and effort to be focused on how to make Sir Fred and his friends pay for their mistakes. I want it to be focused on how to create a banking system that prevents the errors from happening again.
The same approach is needed across business. We don’t need leaders and managers who concentrate solely on resolving existing issues, although those skills will be needed at times. We need leaders who are willing and able to help their teams plan and implement effective prevention strategies.
What is your split of time between problem-solving and problem-prevention? If you are similar to the managers I work with, I’m guessing the the split to be 80/20 in favour of problem-solving.
Whatever the specific measure there is need for us to be more focused on reducing the risk of problems arising in the first place. Here are five practical steps you can take:
- Establish and enforce your annual goals for improvements in operational effectiveness.
- Ask your customers for the top three problems they have with your business and focus on finding ways to eliminate them.
- Develop the capabilities for better planning and prevention across your team.
- Celebrate your people’s successes if they establish sound, problem-free operations.
- Whenever you resolve an immediate issue, spend an equal amount of time in identifying and implementing preventative actions.
Prevention is perhaps less high-profile and heroic than swooping in to resolve problems, but in the longer term it is of far greater value.
