DaJobSucks

I read a book a while back, sorry I don't remember its name, that claimed that 95% of all business came out of desperation, people who had no choice but to rely on themselves for their own salary. They can't take comfort in a monthly salary, but their salary is based on how much work they put in and how creative they can be.

While I would not wish desperation on anyone, it is through the same desperation that you may accomplish more than you ever did with a full time job. The main reasons why desperation spurs industry is that:

1. YOU HAVE TO MAKE IT AND WILL DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO DO SO. We will generally sacrifice much if we know that our actions will impact ourselves and our families directly. Knowledge of the fact that no work may mean no food can be very motivating. 
2. Most importantly, you tend to be more creative, as you have nothing but time to think and come up with ideas that you would not have time to do with a nine to five.

Creativity is a function of time and unbridled thought. No boundaries, no disturbances, no boss calling you to come up with a quick fix for problems. We have the time to expand our craniums, you know, that thing we have dedicated to lining our bosses pocket. We now have time to conjure schemes to line our own pockets.

Take the time today to be creative if you have nothing to do you may surprise yourself. Use what you have been given and don't wait for a job to come out of thin air.

So, you have just installed a new system for your business and you'r gleefully waiting to see the results of the money spent and the promises of "ALL PROBLEMS SOLVED" from the IT guys who sold it to you and installed it.

You start it up just like you would a new car and it purs at you. You sigh and feel all is well until you start using it for you daily business. You then find out that the it is not working as you intended it to. Reports are inaccurate, doesn't give you the information you want and the format makes it impossible for you to read them. Simple tasks are difficult, it takes forever to complete the same tasks and it is not user friendly. Then you call the provider and complain and  they come in and fix some problems and other arises. Months passes before you finally get it right, but by then, any advantage you could have gained during that period is lost because your staff have gamed the system, taking advantage of the system issues that they know exist. You curse the day you bought the system, but you are stuck with it because you have spent so much money already.

WHAT THE HELL WENT WRONG

We have the tendency to blame the system and its providers. However, in most cases, it's not the system that's the problem, it's us. What we need to do is the following:

1. Give a detailed list of what you expect from the system to its system providers (vendors). If the providers do not know what you want then they will give you what they think you want, which usually doesn't work out;
2. Do lots of research. There are many systems out there that can do the things you want it to. From research you will be able to pick a number of providers so that you can have choices;
3. When you have chosen a provider, ensure that you can get good support if you are having any issues after installation;
4. Test the system before you start using it ensuring that all you want from the system is working;
5. Try to get a contract from the provider that ties payment to whether the system is working or not. Many make payment too quickly. Providers may not feel any urgency in dealing with your issues if they already got paid. Remember, it is a buyers market now, so let them work for their money.
6. Have a back out plan if the system is not working. You don't want to be caught with your pants down if the new system is not working properly. Business most go on even if the system is not working. Determine what manual processes you can perform in the interim.
7. Ensure that the users have been trained by the system provider. Untrained users is just as bad as a system that is not working.
8. Keep a log of all issues you have with the system and communicate it to the support.

Even with all that has been said, there is no guarantee that the system will be perfect, but if you do what has been suggested, you put yourself in a much better position to have a successful system implementation.

Good Luck

Brainstorming can be a very useful tool, however, if it is not used properly, it can be as useless as some of our elected officials who seem to make decisions without much thought and pain staking, brain throbbing deliberation.

The business world seems to have taken the approach mentioned above with Brainstorming. The key deficiency I have noticed and which is usually the 800 pound gorilla in the room, is ensuring that all is prepared for brain storming sessions, that is, all should know what is to be discussed so that they can have time to put their ideas together before the meeting.

Persons should be given at least a day to do their own deliberations so that all will come to the table with ideas that have gone through their own personal cerebral grinders. This would avoid knee jerk decision making which I swear has taken over our business universe. We have abused brain storming to the point where it sometimes runs contrary to its intended purpose, which is to resolve pressing issues quickly, through combining the ideas and thoughts of all the persons involved in the meeting.

I know, the idea of having a brainstorming session is to resolve issues quickly so time may not be available, however, if decisions are rushed then you may require more time in the future to fix issues caused because you wanted to make decisions quickly.

For your next brain storming meeting, give your staff more time to come up with ideas so that you can get higher quality resolutions that add value to your business processes and overall operations. Trust me, the wait is worth it.