What Else Can You Do?
Article | Accountability Insights
Accepting reality and owning circumstances will accomplish little if you fail to solve problems and remove obstacles on your road to results. Once you See It and Own It, you must Solve It by constantly asking “What else can I do to achieve the desired results?” Only then can you consistently Do It!
Here are a few Solve It tips for turning your understanding and ownership into real problem solving action:
| 1. | Stay Engaged. Don’t focus on what can’t be done, instead continue to look for and think about alternatives solutions. | |
| 2. | Persist. You can never ever stop asking the Solve It question “What else can I do?” | |
| 3. | Think Differently. Remember, the same thinking that got you into a problem won’t get you out of it. | |
| 4. | Create New Linkages. New approaches usually involve forging new relationships. | |
| 5. | Take the Initiative. Make sure you are the person you want to be. Are you someone who makes things happen? watches things happen? wonders what happened? never knows anything happened? | |
| 6. | Stay Conscious. Challenge current assumptions and beliefs to break through to new levels of thinking that will most likely take you out of your comfort zone. |
Consider the following example of constantly asking “What else can I do?” The call centers of a large financial services company were struggling to improve. Turnover was high, “handle time” was long, and software solutions were inadequate. Targets for improvement were established and everyone began asking “What else can I do?” However, when it came to bringing about real change, the going got tough as numerous unexpected issues and problems arose. Undaunted, everyone in the organization continued to ask “What else can I do?” to find new ways to improve performance. Ideas poured in from everywhere as everyone from senior management to telephone operators took accountability for reducing the time needed to handle a call.
Within a few months they changed the way they hired people, they implemented new software solutions, they began measuring and reporting performance on a daily basis, they implemented a balanced scorecard, and they focused their training and development on high priority skills. Their Solve It mentality flourished, leading to a new set of Solve It skills. The result was a whopping $143 million per year increase in net operating income.
To learn more about constantly asking the Solve It question “What else can I do?” and developing crucial Solve It skills, we invite you to join the Accountability Community at www.partnersinleadership.com, where you can review actual client case studies
See It, Own It, Solve It, Do It, and Accountability Community are all registered trademarks of Partners In Leadership, Inc.