Solving problems is not specifically a management task, but managers are faced with a lot of daily problems that need to be solved.  As a manager you have a slightly different set of resources than your employees.  So how do you, as a manager, go about solving your issues?  There are ten ways that management solves problems.

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If you are in business long enough you will learn a few things about running a business.  Over the years I have run a few businesses and have found 10 ways to improve any business.  Some of it may sound like common sense but unless it happens to you, you may not be thinking about it much.

First on the list is…

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Productivity experts have devised some simple methods to increase your productivity.  They consist of either working harder or working smarter.  Personally I like working smarter but sometimes I end up working harder too.   Use just one idea and you could improve your productivity.  Use all of them and you could double or triple your productivity.

1. Work harder— find ways to increase your task focus.

Work when you are working.  Spend less time socializing and focus on what you need to get done today.  Focus on the tasks at hand and don’t wander into new tasks, multi-task, or get distracted.  The key is to focus and not waste your precious time at work.

2. Work Faster—find ways to pick up your work pace.

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As the Quality Manager you are responsible for Quality Management System (QMS) compliance.  In other words, you must manage all company-wide, quality policies, procedures, processes, programs, and practices, to assure the company of continuous conformance with appropriate standards and regulations.  In a smaller company you may also be the document control manager, quality auditor, and process improvement specialist.

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I recently had a wisdom tooth removed. I woke up one night with a tremendous stabbing pain in the right side of my jaw that radiated to my right ear. Naturally, I had this checked out immediately. While they said removing the tooth wasn’t an absolute necessity, my dentist (and the oral surgeon he referred me to) recommended extraction to prevent impaction, infection, and maybe worse.

The aftermath was much more painful than I thought it’d be. According to the oral surgeon, the tooth had taken root really well. Wisdom teeth I had out years before didn’t have the chance to firmly root themselves like this one. Because this tooth had been around a whole lot longer, the surgeon didn’t expect I’d heal quickly. “It should take about six weeks”, he said.

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The simplest and best definition of a procedure is “a documented process“. Think of any business process. Of what does that process consist? A number of ordered steps. Are those steps followed from start to finish and they’re done? Not exactly.

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Many people confuse “procedures” with “work instructions”.  In fact, most people write work instructions and call them procedures. Knowing the difference can help you understand the documentation process much better and, therefore, develop great procedure documentation.

Procedures describe a process, while a work instruction describes how to perform the conversion itself.  Process descriptions include details about the inputs, what conversion takes place (of inputs into outputs), the outputs, and the feedback necessary to ensure consistent results. The PDCA process approach (Plan, Do, Check, Act) is used to capture the relevant information.

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Most of us believe our companies have adequate “web presence”, considering the time and money we spend. We have a web site (Figure 1) — maybe it’s not on a level with the big consumer companies, but it tells visitors all they need to know about our company and our products/services, and it’s user-friendly.

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In part 1 of this two-part series, we discussed three important reasons why quality management systems (QMS) projects fail. Here are four other reasons:

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