Leadership Card 33 – Problem Solve for Exponential Growth

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Solving The Root Cause of Operational Problems

Wow, that’s a mouthful, isn’t it?  Solving the root cause of operational problems.  What does that even mean?  Well it must mean something, because Jeff Bezos (he’s the CEO of Amazon.com if you haven’t heard of him, and currently the richest man in the world) makes a point of doing it day in and day out in his business, and ensuring his managers do the same.

And it might sound fancy but in fact it’s very simple – find out what is bothering your customers, then don’t just fix it one time, fix the reason behind it.  Here’s an example from the book “One Click: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of Amazon” by Richard Brandt:

He had the packaging redesigned.  He didn’t just apologize.  He didn’t go to her home and open the package one time.  He had the packaging redesigned so it wouldn’t happen again.

Companies With the High Velocity Edge

A man by the name of Steven Spear found the same thing, through research in his book “The High Velocity Edge”.  Companies who outperformed others over long periods of time had leaders who:

1. Designed their work to reveal problems and opportunities
2. Solved the root cause of those problems
3. Shared that knowledge throughout the organisation, then;
4. Developed the problem solving skill in others.

This meets the actions of Jeff Bezos perfectly.  By solving the root cause of problems customers are having, they stop those problems from happening again.  They are saving time, money, and retaining customers.  Then by sharing that knowledge and building the problem solving skill in others, the managers and teams at Amazon.com are building upon previous successes in a way that starts as small improvements and gains, but soon grows to large gains as the improvements compound on each other.

Start and Finish with a Repeatable Process

Problem solving by itself may not give you the results you want.  If you improve something, but don’t lock in those changes, there’s a good chance things will revert to normal after a short period of time.

This is where a standard, repeatable process comes in to play.  By ensuring each product we sell, and each operational process we perform to get there has a clear, repeatable way of doing it, we can use that process to improve.  Something as simple as a checklist, or screenshots, can work wonders with ensuring everyone knows what to do and can do it the same great way every time.

Then when you improve things, you can lock in the changes by updating the process, checklist, screenshots (or any other way you prefer), so the improvement isn’t lost and you can continue to grow over time.

In that way, small incremental improvements will compound on each other over time, leading to large improvements overall.

In that way, solving operational problems is the key to operational excellence.  And by solving problems your customers bring to you (whether through complaints or other feedback) you are unlocking the door to a customer obsession mindset.

Chat soon – David McLachlan

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