Yesterday's Problem--Again

Problems that won't go away usually don't win you any prizes. A guy in Puerto Rico turned his repeating problem into a win when his nine year-old mare lost its 125th race, achieving the distinction of having the longest losing streak of any horse in racing history. The best place Dona Chepa has ever touched is second and she has finished out of the money 90 times during her career.

The corporate world is a bit less forgiving than a race track. The inability to identify and resolve the root cause of a problem usually means the problem repeats itself. Repeated problems cost companies resources, time, missed opportunities, and ultimately--profitability. On a more personal level--repeated problems can provide you with an unexpected invitation to explore new career options.

John Foster Dulles was on target when he said, "The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had last year."

If you don't have time to get to the root cause of a problem now, what makes you think you'll have time to fix the problem again later? An hour of focused cause analysis can save you multiplied hours invested in developing and implementing "fixes" that have little ultimate impact on the real problem.

In the corporate world, they don't give prizes to the slow horse.