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Facts you may need to elicit

What percentage of your time is spent attempting to solve
problems?

What percentage of your team’s time is spent seeking solutions to
problems?

What percentage of solutions work first time?

By how much have costs reduced in the past year?

How much cash have we saved through effective problem solving
in the last twelve months?

Nothing is perfect

In a perfect world problems would never arise. This is not a perfect world,
of course, but there are things that we can do that reduce the incidence and
severity of problems and ensure that what ought to be done is done. The
following case study shows how one corporation ensure that with new
initiatives at least, things work as they should first time and every time.

mini case study

The FedEx way of introducing change

Problems routinely arise whenever we try to do something new or do something that
we have been doing for years in a new way. We try to anticipate the unexpected and
because it is unexpected, we often fail. In strategic planning, for example, we
consistently go beyond the mere identification of “threats”. We try to establish in
advance those that can be avoided by taking action now and we make certain that the
prescribed actions are an important part of our tactical plan. We look at those that
may sneak up and take us by surprise and we develop contingency plans as part of our
strategy. We do all that we can to avoid or manage problems – or do we?

Some key thinkers in Federal Express might argue that we are in real danger of
doing too little much too late. Recognizing that the majority of problems arise in
situations where something is changed (see comments on Kepner/Tregoe below),
FedEx has developed an approach to the introduction of change that is well worth
considering in more detail.

In the corporation the solving of problems or the exploitation of opportunities has
become a team business so the sequence of events goes like this:
Any idea from management or elsewhere is presented as a rough idea. This
ensures that every member of the team understands that they have a role to play in
producing the best possible solution. Every team member is expected and encouraged
to play a full part both in identifying the best solution and in making that solution
work. Nobody has any reason to feel that change is being imposed. They have the

114 Key management questions