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It’s just an Issue

Written by Rene Boer on July 30, 2012

Implementers EOS

If you’re overwhelmed by “136 issues” piling up on your desk, you’re not alone. As someone told me recently “I feel like my life is on post-its and bits of scrap paper.” Does this strike a chord with you?

Take a deep breath. Tell yourself “it’s just an issue”. Not everything on your list is something you must do immediately. Often, this leads us to some bad behaviors:

  1. Ignore it - hoping it will resolve itself
  2. Kick it down the road - while telling everyone we’re working on it
  3. Solve only the little issues - because, we tell ourselves, “I’m getting a lot done”
  4. Pass it on to others - via middle-of-the-night emails and voice messages

The best way to deal with issues is to follow the Issues Solving Track™. It starts with creating an Issues List. Get everything off your desk and out of your head and create a list of ideas, obstacles, barriers and things that you think need to get done.

Once you’ve cleaned up the scraps of paper and you have everything on a list, you’re able to put things in perspective. Your Issues List has created context. As you look at everything as a whole you’re in a better position to prioritize. Take another deep breath. How many of those issues are only symptoms of a root cause?

In the world of EOS, we follow 3 steps to make issues go away forever, IDS (Identify, Discuss and Solve). A solution leads to either a decision (yes or no … not maybe) or a “to do” item. When we deal with 136 issues as 136 “to do” items we skip 5 important steps:

  1. Build an Issues List
  2. Prioritize the Issues
  3. Identify the root cause
  4. Discuss it
  5. Solve it

The solution may lead to a "to do". If you skip the steps above, you risk creating more work for yourself. Remember, you’re only human. It’s just an issue.


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