“Stay committed to your decisions, but be flexible in your approach” – Tom Robbins
A year or so ago, I had a client come up to me after our problem-finding workshop had ended and say, “I am so sorry that we didn’t find any problems to fix right now…We feel just awful!”
Can you imagine that? First of all, they weren’t my problems, I was just the facilitator of the session, and quite frankly, they were “problems’ that could wait for a solution. But the part that was most distressing was that she didn’t consider the weeks of work that went into scouring the organization for problems to solve, for ideas on product improvement, or for ways to better engage customers as a successful outcome to the engagement.
Sometimes, like our in our current economic climate, it just doesn’t make good financial sense to take action on problems or ideas. Or in other words, sometimes you really can’t afford to “innovate.” But that certainly doesn’t mean that you should completely ignore your search for problems to solve, shut down idea campaigns, pull the plug on low-cost prototypes or cease to engage in other organizational creativity activities. Sometimes making the decision to do nothing is the best decision to make. And yes…that IS okay!
The main point is, even if you aren’t currently in a position to execute on ideas, that doesn’t mean you have to stop challenging your employees to look for pain-points to solve, to think of ideas that might steal a few customers from your biggest competitor or to simply look inside your organization and make certain the current strategic direction is still headed on the right bearing. Use these challenging times, or any ebb in the cyclical nature of business, to fill up the idea funnel or pipeline. It costs very little to put people in a room for the day to think about the problems your organization faces. Then, when the time is right, you’ll have actionable ideas that have been fully explored and considered for immediate execution. In fact, while your competitor is busy restarting his innovation machine and going on a search for new ideas to bring to market, you’ll already be putting prototypes in front of customers, including some of his!
So let me close by telling you what I told that client last year who felt just awful about deciding not to solve any of the problems they discovered, “The simple act of looking for problems to solve solves a problem. Think of the things you now know that you didn’t know before. Believe it or not, that is an incredible competitive advantage.”
Hopefully you see it the same way!
Im tired of dealing with clients, they always think their right and the serving industry has messed me up for customer service
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In recent years travel by plane has become significantly more complicated. There are so many different configurations for flights and types of fares. Dire economic circumstances have caused airlines to raise rates and charge extra fees for everything from baggage to blankets. There are complex rules about what you can and cannot carry in your luggage. It can be very difficult to determine whether you are getting the best deal or the best services when you buy an airline ticket. The internet makes the navigation of airlines, airports, and flight itineraries easier, but, even so, be prepared to do some research if you want to find a flight at the best price.
Here is something up front that might save you time and money right off the bat. If you are traveling within the United States mainland, always look at Southwest Airlines first. Southwest is almost always the best deal you will find. However, Southwest itineraries do not appear on the major travel websites, so always go directly to the airline’s website for information. Plug in your travel plans, and you will get a list of all the flights that are available. Southwest typically charges more reasonable prices than other airlines, and there are no hidden fees. The price you see is the price you get although tax and the government fee that is attached to all flights does apply. For lower prices than you can probably get anywhere else look at the “web only” fares, but keep in mind that these fares are not refundable.
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Long time lurker, thought I would say hello! I really dont post much but thanks for the good times I have here. Love this place..
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