THE 4 GOLDEN RULES OF TROUBLESHOOTING
Murphy’s Law is well known in our business, but as a reminder; ‘anything that can go wrong generally does go wrong mostly sooner than later…’ and if it does you have trouble to solve.
Look around you; everyone has trouble of some sort to deal with. So in that perspective you are unfortunately not unique.
Asking the question ‘why me?’ will not solve your trouble any quicker, but what does? Moreover how is it possible some persons seem to have no difficulties solving their trouble? It appears as if they have a natural ‘gift’ handling it; they remain so calm and in control it is almost annoying.
The following 4 golden rules I will share with you in this blog did not come to me over night; I wish! The reality however is that while running Islands in the different parts of the World; I dueled with 'Murphy' on more than one occasion.
That particular moment when the Island generator broke down in the middle of a Christmas dinner with a full house, or that time when the Chef decided to 'circumcise' the F&B manager during dinner time, butchery tools in hand chasing him through a full restaurant. Fortunately he did not succeed but you get the picture.
The first golden rule
Is to prepare yourself for trouble; it will happen to you no matter what! Sometimes it is mechanical, other times human related but when you least expect it and the timing is always extremely bad!
The second golden rule
Is to identify two sorts of people in your organization in regards to handling trouble; persons who see trouble and persons who solve trouble. I hope you are the latter. Why is this important? Simply because seeing trouble does not solve it!
You know them; employees who call themselves team members but are of absolutely no added value or contribution to the trouble solving process whatsoever; ballast. Don’t get upset; you can deal with them later, right now you have bigger fish to fry.
The third golden rule
Is to look at the 'kind' of trouble; mechanical or human related. This determines your approach and troubleshooting strategy.
What matters most is your approach to solving trouble after your assessment, not the trouble itself. This sounds easy but takes practice. Often the trouble that has surfaced is not the real trouble to solve at all; it is your job to find this out.
The fourth and last golden rule of troubleshooting
Is actually solving your trouble. After you have accepted that there will be trouble, assessed what the source of your trouble is; mechanical or human related, you need a plan A and plan B in solving your trouble.
You have looked at all angles and calculated your risks. Enough thinking and talking; now go and do it! There have been many situations when I saw points 1-3 were covered but the execution successfully failed, causing even bigger trouble. Disregard all 'moron' remarks like ‘we don’t have trouble; only opportunities’!
Get real and snap out of your daydreaming, just concentrate and solve your trouble; the RIGHT way.
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With sunny regards, Frits Hannenberg.