Key Business Solutions: Essential problem-solving tools and techniques that every manager needs to know (Financial Times Series)
Antonio E. Weiss
Language: English
Pages: 224
ISBN: 0273750291
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
This book explains how to resolve every challenge faced on a day-to-day basis in your business by presenting an unbeatable inventory of proven problem solving tools and techniques to help you tackle your toughest business dilemmas effectively.
You will learn how to:
· Overcome any business challenge with robust logic and structure
· How to break down problems and make your workload lighter
· Deliver the ‘killer’ recommendations
· Discover how to successfully implement change in people and organisations
· How to keep yourself, your team, and your stakeholders happy
· How to use an effective hypothesis-driven approach to problem solving
Using case studies, a ‘best practice example’ and at least one figurative table or figure, every dilemma is bought to life equipping you with the very best tools to confront any problem your business may face.
‘The most successful businesses don’t avoid problems – they solve them. This practical, insightful and entertaining book guides you through how to do this. An indispensable resource for any manager.'
Richard Newton, Business consultant and best-selling author
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'One of the key attributes in running a business successfully is the ability to see a situation in perspective. Too often the real issues go unrecognised, signs are misread, an opportunity slips by, the wrong problem is addressed. Only in retrospect is it obvious what should have been done.
It is not easy, but the tools and techniques covered in Key Business Solutions should help.’
Sir George Cox, Author of the HM Treasury Cox Review of Creativity in UK Business and former Chairman of the Design Council
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for sentence length. A key sentence (for instance, the first sentence in a paragraph) should not be more than 15 words. A supporting sentence can be up to 25 words. This is because it is harder to remember and digest long sentences rather than shorter ones. Figure 6.11 Example paragraph using point-proof-analysis Figure 6.12 Example dot-dash paragraph using point-proof-analysis The PPA technique is a simple but hugely effective way of ensuring that your arguments are clear,
audience Think about how you want to interact with your audience. Do you want to take questions during your presentation or at the end? In most circumstances, it is recommended to take questions at the end of a presentation and to say this explicitly to the audience at the start. However, if you do this, try to create a presentation which pre-empts and deals with the obvious questions that could be asked in the actual presentation content. An audience that is dying to ask a question and
members. It’s important to note that just because someone is ascribed a particular team role this doesn’t mean that no other team member is allowed to display attributes of the role too. For example, it would be madness to suggest that because one person on the team is given the ‘plant’ role then no-one else can think creatively or imaginatively – everyone can (and should) still do this. The point is that in the team dynamic, it is the ‘plant’s’ responsibility to ensure that imaginative and
recipient has thanked them for their time, it is up to the recipient whether to act on the feedback and suggestions given. This is a crucial point about feedback. Just as you can refuse to receive it, you can refuse to act on it too – it is up to the recipient. At the very least, the recipient should make a note of the feedback received so they can build up a picture of their strengths and weaknesses. When should you give feedback? Feedback can be offered or requested at any point in the
the key insight to solving it. For instance, if your contextual analysis demonstrates that with regard to the external strategic context there is growing concern about redundancies in your sector, this could be a major contributing factor to the problem that you are experiencing – poor productivity in your workforce. Performance. Most problems are about improving performance. By looking at historic trends (i.e. past performance) you can identify what is actually quite normal compared to what is
