Tool Box
Issue No. 13 - October/November 2003
What Are Your Critical Issues?
How Disciplined Problem Solving and Decision—Making can Help Your Business
by Bill Anschutz
“Where to from here”, is the question that continuously confronts business owners, leaders and managers. Each day brings something different, something unexpected, and something beyond existing knowledge and experience.
Unravelling the maze, identifying the critical issues, determining the seriousness and allocating the priority for attention, are essential skills of leaders and managers. However it all starts with knowing what you want to achieve and having a clear picture of what you want to create. Of course circumstances change and there will always be a need to make adjustments to compensate for the variations. The issue is to continuously identify and resolve the 3—5 most critical issues.
Business is inherently action oriented, constantly reacting to circumstances and effort is often substituted for foundation building and strategy that will move the organisation towards its ultimate vision or objective. The urgent takes priority over the important. Band Aids are applied when systems need to be reoriented, and the complexity grows.
There is no simple answer that will address all of the minute—by—minute variables, other than the technique of dealing with the effect while identifying the cause and working to resolve the cause as part of a longer term strategy.
There are many ways to address to day—to—day concerns of business, but just as regular personal health checks are recognised as good practice, businesses and organisations need regular health checks.
When asked to design Guidelines for Good Business Practice—as one of the 10 key initiatives to implement the South Australia Business Vision for 2010—the project team designed a checklist that addressed the essential elements of any organisation or business. The checklist or self—assessment questionnaire is available free, on the website www.bbb.sabv2010.com.au.
The Self Assessment questionnaire covers People, Leadership, Customer Focus, Suppliers,...
