Operations: Solve Your Club’s Biggest Problems

Every company has problems. But it’s how each company solves those problems where things really differ.

In a recent webinar called “How to Work With Your Team to Solve Your Club’s Biggest Problems,” Emmett Williams, the president of MYZONE, shared how his team solves problems to great success.

“Strategy is deciding upon a set of activities to give you an advantage over the long haul,” said Williams.

What exactly does this mean? According to Williams, it means that everything needs a process — even problem solving.

MYZONE’s four-step process for problem solving is as follows.

ONE: Analyze: Come up with a problem statement. What is our problem? “Being vague doesn’t help,” said Williams. “It has to be specific.”

TWO: Ideation (brainstorming): Come up with some creation solutions to your problem. “This is where you get your team, ideally in an off-site location, where you peel off for 45 minutes and try and solve a problem,” said Williams. “This is where creativity comes into play.”

THREE: Prioritize: Make it a priority to solve the problem.

According to Williams, you need to prioritize problem-solving projects based on the amount of money or effort involved and the return you’ll receive.

Below is one diagram MYZONE uses to prioritize projects:

Or sometimes, they’ll use this system:

The key is to prioritize the solutions you come up with. You can’t do them all, so you have to find the ones that have the greatest return based on the resources and time you have at your disposal.

FOUR: Test: Test your solution. According to Williams, a great testing strategy is A/B testing. “You want to test your hypotheses before testing it in a big-bang format,” said Williams.

According to Williams, what’s great about this four-step process is it gives your team a sense of autonomy and “play” over their work, empowering them to solve problems that affect the whole company. Ultimately, these solutions will make a real impact on your business’ success, especially over time.

To watch the full webinar, click here.