This year at work, create problems. Infact, make a resolution, do not resolve issues without creating a problem. And no this won’t get you sacked.
Huh? Are you serious?
Yes I am serious. This year create problems at work. Let me explain.
You have a printer at work, where 100 people print from. You often see that printer has lots of papers printed and left at the printer. This could be for some of the reasons listed below:
- People printing forget they have a print
- Prints get mixed and someone else picks half the prints and you have to print again
- Someone picks the print and then keeps it back when finding it does not belong to them
This wastes money on paper, ink and electricity. Frustrates people and shows unprofessional behavior to your clients who visit you.
Now, all of those are issues you have to resolve. So what’s the easiest way to resolve the issue?
Faizan, stop being silly, I know the answer!
Well and your answer is one of the two below?
A1. Educate people to stop printing unnecessarily
A2. Every morning throw away the papers left at the printer overnight.
Yes ofcourse it’s one of the answers above?
The answers above don’t solve the issue, they put a temporary fix on it. They almost hid the problem. The problem is every poor print decision by employees is costing the business.
Employees are humans and they make mistakes. To avoid these mistakes a business has standards and processes in place. Because the business understands a mistake can create a problem for them and cost them.
The prints taken from the printer are useful. Those that have been printed but remain uncollected are wasted resources. And you can educate as many as people or throw away as many papers as you want – but that doesn’t solve the problem.
You will only resolve the issue when you stop the prints happening in the first place. Stop money being wasted. You need to get a system in place to resolve the issue.
And to get business support for your change, you need to first create a problem.
OK, so I get the printer thing but why create a problem?
With the printer issue, every one can solve it by throwing the papers away every morning. But no one can get to the bottom of how to stop these many papers being printed unnecessarily in the first place?
And that’s you. You have to find the cause of so many prints and fix the issue.
You have to create a problem.
You have to inform the business of how much the prints are costing the business annually. Be the one bringing the bad news of a problem and then offer a solution.
When you show a problem and then offer a solution – it becomes easier to gain business support in resolving the issue.
So this year, create problems at work. Find that bit of improvement that will improve the efficiency of your team, business or process.
This post is now too long, I am tired
OK, that’s a cue for me. I will leave you with this. if you like this post, please share it or leave a comment below.
