“What would have to happen in order for your part of the organisation to deliver on our strategy?”

OK that could read ‘operation’ if your structure is small, but this is at the heart of essential management thinking.

I’m quite aware the example I am about to talk about is not a charity and the issue is unlikely to come up in environmental work, but I believe it tells a story.

I worked with a small oil services company in Malaysia that seemed to have so many issues, they didn’t know which way was up.  But they had a good reputation in the market and business was coming to them.

Their internal issues included stores and inventory issues, too much of one thing and lack of another, with no discernible system to correct this.

At a strategic planning retreat, I asked the question “What would have to happen for your inventory to be inline with your business flow?”

This was a way of looking at a process towards a solution rather than, looking for solutions and trying to see if they were workable.  Too often, at management meetings the solutions are tabled before the real landscape is seen.

Questioning is a key part of any planning or problem-solving process.  ‘Question everything’ has been a powerful mantra for many new Directors & Chief Executives.

The downside of questioning everything is of course ‘paralysis by analysis’, so it is important to be directed when questioning.  I have found that “What would have to happen…” is a great starter for the thinking process.

In the case of this oil services company, the answers to my question ranged from “the logistics manager should be sacked”, to “we need a new software system”.  These are solutions, but don’t address the question.  The stores manager eventually said “I need to have the right parts in the right place at the right time, and only those.”  There you go, that is what needed to happen.  “So what solution would enable this to happen?”

“Having the project action plan for each piece of new business shared with logistics.”

“But surely you have that already.”  Well they did have a thorough action plan for each job, but the communication of this wasn’t sufficiently thorough for all departments to give their input as to the impact.

Some departments were caught off guard and logistics, believe it or not, was one.  They were given parts lists for a project, but not sufficient detail of the timing of when each part would be required.  It seemed obvious to an outsider, but then of course there was the element of “we’ve always done it this way” that crept in.

The solution itself, hardly rocket-science and very commonly used in production nowadays, but this was some years ago and although logical and seemingly obvious, those too close couldn’t see it.  By asking this simple question, the team were able to step back and see it.

Most solutions to management problems are of course obvious (to someone), but so many other things cloud the thinking.  Priorities, how it has always been done, internal politics, management styles etc., we’ve all experienced these and others.

Having a clear ‘thinking’ process to sort the wheat from the chaff is vital.  How would you define the thinking process you adopt in your operation?

Could “What would have to happen…?” help you?

<By-line>Terry Murphy  ‘Saving the Planet, one charity at a time.’