In my line of business, you’ll probably be interested to know that finding a solution is the easiest part of the turnaround process.
The hardest part? Formulating the exact problem.
There are so many elements that contribute to a situation’s deterioration. It can be bad management practices, legal troubles, negative press, poor productivity, bad strategy and so forth.
Pinpointing the precise issue among the hundreds of potential problems is tough unless the exact situation has been encountered before.
This is to say that in this game, experience and observation are essential skills because they shorten the troubleshooting process and once the problem is spotted, the turnaround solution is blatantly obvious.
That’s why more than half of my time is spent on analyzing situations, researching the past and observing current practices. In order words, accumulating knowledge and identify patterns.
The typical analogy is that of a specialized doctor. To a dermatologist, a certain type of rash can easily reveal the nature of the problem and the remediation is a fast process. Knowing the type of rash is the hard part. But, experience and knowledge do come in handy big time.
Proper problem spotting is the most important process of turning around a situation, career or company.
