3 Tips How to Solve for Problems Before they even Happen

For #wisdomwendesdays I’m sharing some quick tips that will be helpful, especially for process improvement professionals growing a team or have frequent organizational changes.

You know when you’ve been working with a client for at least year or two, and then there are so many changes in their organization happening, perhaps due to growth, movement, or restructuring?

Often times you’ll be assigned to work with new faces. And usually they are either younger in age, or have less tenure than the previous people you were working with.

While your clients may say that it’s for the better, or that it’s good to have a fresh set of eyes, even though I agree to that, it does present itself with a challenge.

The challenge with having new people in the organization is that the

History usually repeats itself. So find pain points based on history.

Read on as I share 3 quick tips to allow you to work with new team members and alleviate this challenge.

Tip #1: Get Historical Data

Get historical data, at the very least, 1 year prior, and plot it into a time-series chart or better yet, a control chart.

Then using that data, identify historical trends such as seasonality of volume, special causes, events, initiatives deployed, and such.

Tip #2: Tell the Story

Provide the story behind key points in the trend.

For example, these new guys you’re working with have probably never experienced what a recession feels like. They were probably in high school when it last happened.

Paint a story for them on what a recession is like, what people go through and experience, how people prepare for it, what works and what doesn’t, and so forth.

Tip #3: Create a FMEA

FMEA stands for Failure Mode and Effects Analysis. Sometimes I refer to this as a “What could possibly go wrong?” analysis.

First, this will allow you to think about and identify all potential things that can potentially go wrong, before it even happens.

Second, it will allow you to identify what the effects will be, if it does happen.

Third, you will get to identify how severe the effects will be based in how it will impact business, employees, and customers, how often it can potentially happen, and how effective you are at finding out if it is about to happen.

Lastly, it will allow you to calculate the risk for each, and using the math behind it, you will be able to prioritize each potential failure point so you can create solutions for it before it even happens.

Ending note

I would like to impart that knowledge with you, and I show how root cause analysis and the FMEA works in my book – The Business Optimization Blueprint (downloaded in 34 countries!). Downand it for FREE (for a limited time only) so you can start applying these skills to improve your business and your life.