Martin Haworth Subscribe to Martin's articles (Visit Martin's Website) (c) 2009 Martin Haworth is a business and management coach and trainer. He is the author of Super Successful Manager!, an easy to use, step-by-step weekly development program for managers of EVERY skill level. You can get a sample lesson for free at http://www.SuperSuc cessfulManager.com. Martin Haworth is a Platinum author on EvanCarmichael.com

Coaching Businesses to Success - Coaching Businesses to Success News Updates

Martin Haworth's Complete List Of Business-Coach Articles Name Email If you enjoyed this article, get Martin Haworth's Complete List of Business-Coach Articles For FREE! More Martin Haworth Succession Planning Tricks in Your Business and Organization Empowerment The Key To Developing Your Management Skills Top Ten Tactics for Team Building Success 6 Simple Steps to Dealing with Difficult Managers Employee Motivation The 8 Basics Top Ten Things You Would Never Hear a Coach Say or then again What Is Leadership What Is Management 10 Great Ways to Motivate Your Employees As You Go Top Ten Things About Creating a Business Vision 8 Critical Listening Skills Factors for Managers

As Albert Einstein said:-

"The significant problems we face today, cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them."

Problems don't go away unless you get to the cause - the source of them. Repeatedly 'fixing' issues that arise takes a physical and mental toll on you and your team. The key is to solve problems once and for all and move on.

Picture this scenario:-

Luke runs a small engineering factory, making electronic tagging systems for retailers. His business has really taken off in the last two years and his people are really stretched now to keep up with demand.

Recently his people have been complaining more; there have been a number of unpleasant incidents where tempers have become frayed. Two large customers have taken Luke to task personally because of late fulfillment of orders.

In the past Luke would have worked harder, fought his fires and got home late, but right at the moment his wife and family have started to complain that he is putting work before them more than ever.

Then he heard about 'Solving Problems with Whys'.

With two of his key people, he asked them to work with him quickly, on why they were having so many little issues arising in the business - and they would use the 'Whys' process to solve them. As an example, one actual issue that they discussed early on, went as follows:-

"Our orders have started to go out late"
Why?
"Because we have too much work on for the people we have"
Why?
"Because we don't have enough people"
Why?
"Because we can't recruit"
Why?
"Because our rates aren't good enough"
Why?
"Because we decided to place a ceiling on them"
Why?
"To keep our costs down"
Why?
"Because costs were eating into our profits"
Why?
"Good question"

Here you can see a whole new series of conversations evolving for Luke and his team. Instead of cursing everyone for late completion of orders, or their behaviours getting out of control, or all and everything else which seems to be going wrong, the discussion about rates causing there to be too few staff, has evolved into a more general issue about costs being too high. Here the process can start again:-

"Our costs are too high"
Why?
"We don't know"
Why?
"Because we don't have the data"
Why?
"Because we've never invested in collecting it"
Why?
"Because we never thought it important"
Why?
"Because we didn't realise the impact it was having"
Why?
"Because we never knew the impact it was having on our customers and on our business"
Why?
"Because we never saw the big picture"

And from here, Luke and his team, using just 14 one-word questions, have a whole new perspective on their business and they are ready to create a whole raft of ideas and actions to move this problem to a solution - for the long term, not just the short-term.

Sometimes, there is value in bringing in a facilitator to work with your team in this way, as a 'neutral' prepared to support the process on some of these challenging 'why's'. This lets you and your team tease out and own the end-point sources of problems. And share the successes of achieving the very best solutions together.

In this example, there is a semi-strategic issue, but the technique can be used for much simpler issues which crop up day-to-day in your business.

And, of course, over quite a short period of time, truly solving problems such that they go away for good, means that you can get home to your 'other life' and get to know your friends and family again...

Martin Haworth is a business and management coach and trainer, working with a range of clients from corporates to individuals worldwide. www.MartinHaworth.com

Solve Problems Permanently Ask WHY - To learn more about this author, visit Martin Haworth's Website.

Like this article? Share it with your friends

---

	No article feedback found.
	Leave Your Feedback

---

Leanne Hoagland-Smith Are your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website

To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us.