Forget Fixing It, Improve It!

I was working with a company recently where there were some problems that clearly needed fixing. "Easily done not a big deal", according to his accountant he just needs some help. "Maybe a little bit of a plan, some sound advice" and they'll be as right as rain. 

The trouble was that's what the accountant wanted, that's what the client wanted - but I felt they needed something completely different. In my opinion they needed to create a plan for improved success, to create lasting change and to seek support from those who would implement his plan for change. 

You can't just focus on planning and scheduling the really good performers eliminate any defects in an improvement plan before they ever turn into work. Small problems are seldom left to turn into big failures and big problems rarely happen. Efforts which simply focus on driving the right organisation maintenance work practices bog the organisation down in mire. Efforts must be targeted on lasting change and improving rather than fixing.