To solve problems: involve relevant staff

It used to be thought that top management should spend most of the time thinking about future plans. This is not the case when a company falls into turbulent times and the team members are trying to find a breakthrough on persistent issues. This is the time when senior management needs to get to the root cause of the problem, to help find better and effective solutions. In order to fix difficult and complicated problems, the following are approaches team members should consider:

Be creative. It is important to be creative in finding alternatives that may not have been considered before. Without new ideas, effective solutions can hardly be derived.   

Be clear about the target. The aim is to achieve expected results. Thus the target must be put at the top of the agenda for the problem-solving team.

Be involved in contribution. It will be more productive if everyone concerned has a chance to share opinions and make suggestions on the issue being discussed.

Be decisive. In making tough decisions, management has to be courageous, even without complete information, to keep up the momentum of the team.

Be fast. In moving towards the right solution, it is important to ensure that everyone has a sense of urgency about geting things done at high speed.  

Once management gets into details, team members can feel more confident that the problem can be fixed by those with authority to make necessary and important decisions. It is impossible to please everyone, but the best solution must be concluded upon and communicated to the whole team so that clear understanding and direction can be obtained. The following is an example of a case study of delay in production, in which top management had to get involved:

An urgent meeting was called by top management, with concerned people consisting of production manager, production supervisor, financial manager, purchasing manager, transport manager, sales manager and human resources manager.

The next product shipment target was clearly communicated to the team, with emphasis that it was ttheo last chance for the plant to ensure that it would not miss the deadline.

The production manager explained the prolonged problem was the absenteeism of key operators, causing production stoppage in some stations.

The management decided to allow overtime or hiring of temporary staff as needed.

The transport manager said that he couldn’t ensure that the outsourced truck would be available by the time needed.

The management decided to rent a car specifically for that delivery purpose and make sure that the truck would be available on that day.

The purchasing manager said that the approval process was lengthy, causing delay in getting the order done on a timely basis.

The management decided to change the approval process by shortening the flow and eliminating redundancy.

The above case reflects part of a situation that can be easily fixed with the involvement of all relevant people. Instead of seeing a problem repeated, seriously look into it and get involved in fixing it permanently.

   

Yanyong Thammatucharee is senior vice president for accounting and finance at Central Marketing Group.