Volume 5, Issue 4 - April 2004
 


Solution or band-aid?

By Rhonda Scharf (Finniss)

According to Tom Peters, who wrote In Search of Excellence, 86 per cent of all business problems can be solved by the people actually doing the job. Look at the number of times a consultant has been brought in, paid an extraordinary amount of money, only to come up with a solution the company could have come up with on its own?

The challenge we face is that we tend to assume we know what the problem is. And then we are quick to put a corporate 'band-aid' on these misdiagnosed problems. What we need to focus on is understanding what the problem is before we rush off to find a solution.

Voice mail is one example of a corporate 'band-aid.' The 'assumed' problem is that people are not at their telephones and are therefore not able to answer their telephones. Solution: employ a receptionist just to take messages. Approximate salary for a receptionist: $20,000-$30,000 (early 1990s, prior-to-voice-mail price) a year.

And then voice mail was introduced. Assumed problem: 'we're spending too much money for someone to just take messages.' Solution: voice mail. Companies embraced the solution and promptly spent more than the receptionist's salary on equipment and training to implement it. Did it work? Or did it create a multitude of additional problems?

Of course the answer is that for many companies it was a costly, time-consuming 'new problem' that became worse than the original 'problem.' The situation should be a red flag, signifying that perhaps the original problem was incorrectly defined right from the start.

To help understand it fully, the following questions need to be asked:

1
How big is the problem? Is it something that can be solved immediately (or in the very-short-term)? Might other people or resources need to be involved? (The assumption here is that the more people involved, the more widespread the ownership and the higher the likelihood the solution will prove successful.)

2
Why is it a problem? This key question helps with the 'understanding' component of problem solving. In the voice-mail example, the 'why' was assumed to be financial. The receptionist was costing money, so the problem appeared to be a financial one.

I don't believe that was the problem at all. Perhaps the problem was an issue of customer service, expectations or commitment. Answering the telephone is more than a voice-mail problem. The voice-mail solution created more of a problem because 'not answering the phone' was never the real 'why' at all.

3
What are the consequences of doing nothing? How would doing nothing at all affect the employees or customers? Looking at the consequences of doing nothing may push you into making a decision now, deferring it or even ignoring the problem altogether. Corporate business has looked at the voice-mail problem in a couple of different ways. Some companies have created "Service Level Agreements" with their customers stating that they will return all calls within 'x' timeframe - thereby focusing on the real issue of expectations and customer service. Other companies chose to remove voice mail altogether. Most companies chose to ignore the problem completely and behave as if voice mail is the solution to the original 'assumed' problem.

4
What does a successful solution look like? How will we know whether we've got the right solution or we've put a band-aid on it? If we spent time, effort and money on solving the problem, what would the measurable outcome be? Have we saved the money a receptionist cost us? No, and in the end many more dollars are wasted playing voice-mail tag and listening to a dozen three-minute voice-mail messages every day.

If the challenge in your workplace is the misdiagnosis of problems, be sure to review these four points. You may find that your 'solution' is more of a 'band-aid.'

   
   

Rhonda Scharf (Finniss), CSP is a Certified Professional Speaker, Trainer and Author and President of ON THE RIGHT TRACK - Training & Consulting. Rhonda is available for training and keynote speeches for your organization. Call today at (877) 213-8608 or e-mail Rhonda@on-the-right-track.com. Why not take a moment and sign up here for her complimentary quarterly newsletter.
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