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The Most Underrated Skill in Management
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The Most Underrated Skill in Management

There are few management skills more powerful than the discipline of clearly articulating the problem you seek to solve before jumping into action.

Nelson P. Repenning, Don Kieffer and Todd Astor
MIT Sloan Management Review, 2017
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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable
  • Well Structured

Recommendation

Change is crucial in the rapidly evolving modern business environment, but are you using a sledgehammer when a surgeon’s scalpel would do? In this MIT Sloan Management Review article, Nelson P. Repenning and Don Kieffer – consultants and MIT Sloan management professors – and Todd Astor – a medical director at Massachusetts General Hospital – suggest that small, carefully planned change initiatives are more effective and less disruptive than large-scale, sweeping strategic overhauls. getAbstract recommends this applicable article to managers seeking a clearly defined problem-solving process that leads to actionable solutions and measurable results.

Take-Aways

  • Problem formulation is a crucial but undervalued skill. Leaders who take the time to define problems clearly make more progress with fewer resources.
  • Problem statements should be blame-free, specific and quantifiable. They should have a well-defined link to the organization’s main values and objectives.
  • Divide unwieldy problems into smaller tasks that your company can tackle right away. People learn more and stay motivated when they get immediate feedback.

About the Authors

Nelson P. Repenning and Don Kieffer teach at MIT Sloan School of Management. Both work for the consulting firm ShiftGear Work Design LLC.  Todd Astor is a medical director at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School professor.

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