6/19/24

Dealing with Issues TW Creative Business Solutions

Transcript:

Hi there. Thanks for joining me on this Tuesday. This is Tina Wolfe. I'm with Creative Business Solutions. Today I want to talk to you about issues. And the best way for me to do that is with a story about a recent client that I had that really illustrates the interconnectedness between company success and having a process for dealing with issues in your company.

I was working with a company and they were instituting a new program into a particular department in their business. They were in their, almost their third week of implementation and it had come to a stand-still. And when they called me in, I'm looking at things and I'm interviewing, I'm talking to the department head, I'm on the floor talking to the workers. What I discovered and brought back to the company leaders was that the people that were experiencing the glitches and the problems were the people on the front lines.

But no one had asked for their input.

They were the people with the great intel. They knew what was going on, their opinion and their experience was very important to whether or not this new program was going to be a success. So the problem was that they did not feel confident or uncomfortable speaking out. They had never done it before.

They’d never been asked to share that feedback with the company, with their departmental heads or their leadership. And This is common in a lot of companies where you bring the new change to a department head and say, just get it done. The directives go down without any explanation or without understanding of how it benefits the workers or how it benefits the company.

That's a big oversight. that I see happening that causes a lot of problems and issues. This cog in the wheel and their implementation cost them not only a lot of money, but it cost them time and resources. So the point is the responsibility of really selling that change, that new and different thing to the team, to the whole team, and then on down, falls on the top leadership.

The whole leadership team needs to be on board and clear on relaying that information to those under them. The leadership team sells it to their departments. It's their responsibility as the leadership to really get their employees and the people under them on board 100 percent by getting them excited and involving them and saying, “I need your feedback. You're the ones that are going to be working this program.”

I need to know your take on it and how the customers are reacting or how the process is going, how the system is going. Is there a glitch? Do you see a different way?”

You want to involve them and they need to feel comfortable sharing. What we had to do is create a system that allowed for an environment where all employees really feel comfortable and are all in for the project because they understood the benefits to the company, the employees and the customers.

An environment where they felt valued could contribute because that information that they provide is critical and can mean the difference between the success and failure of that new system, and ultimately your company. So, having a system and process for implementing change and dealing with issues within a company was our winning solution.

The process I use and provide to clients is part of EOS, Entrepreneurial Operating System. It’s called IDS: Identify the issue, Discuss the issue, and create a Solution for the issue. It’s integrating into every team meeting, They now have an issues list so employees feel free to bring up things. it's not emotional It's not addressed at a person or any particular individual or department. We say, “This is what's going on. We're running into a problem here.” They're able to quickly identify and create solutions to avoid costly stand-stills.

I love this because that encourages the creativity in the employees and when your employees feel involved, they're going to contribute great, fantastic ideas that you may not have thought of. Right? You're utilizing the whole potential of your team, and you're actually nurturing the potential of your team in that way.

So keeping track of issues in every department, and as a company wide practice, does several thingss.

It empowers staff, creates a unified culture, eliminates issues snowballing out of control, and encourages create problem solving within the team.

When you have a list of issues, you can set aside a team to really brainstorm about solutions to these issues. Then you can work together and create more effiecient processes.

Now issues don't snowball into three weeks and all of a sudden you've got a halt on a project where you've lost a lot of money that you've already spent and you can't get it back. So, having a program and a process for dealing with issues, having a program and a process that encourages your employees to be involved in the process and encouraged to get their feedback is important.

The IDS system is my one of my tools that I use for issues. If you'd like to learn more, contact me for a no-pressure consultation. If you need to contact me, ask me questions, I'd be happy to talk to you.

Hope you have a great day. And until next time, thanks. Bye bye.