How to use creative problem solving during the Market "Downturn"?

Tough economic times are precisely the time to really think outside the box to keep your business running smoothly. No manager wants to layoff their team members to reduce their expenses during economy downturns. Hopefully that is a last resort.

During tough economic times, it should be all hands on deck to either increase the sales or reduce expenses. Any solution you can possibly think of before eliminating your staff.

Of course there are the standard methods that everybody uses. In the sales department, you can put the products on sale or add incentives. In the production department, you can streamline processes perhaps. At one company I worked for, they authorized the developers to use the time when they had no billable work to research and develop their skills.

What you'll notice about those solutions is that they are all contained within the silos of the individual departments or divisions.

What if you could bring the teams together at those times to really innovate an alternative way to increase revenue?

These tough times are when you need to leverage the skills of your experts to their maximum potential. Integrative thinking techniques can help to draw out truly revolutionary ideas in crisis times. By bringing together experts from all your operational units, what type of innovations could be discovered to improve your economic outlook?

In some ways, I have a Pollyanna attitude when it comes to seemingly unresolvable issues. I usually keep digging and rotating until an acceptable solution crystalizes and often the solution components are drawn out of diverse experts and synthesized into something completely unexpected. My belief in solutions is based on many years of successful experiences. When I find a scenario that can't be improved by innovation, then perhaps I'll consider being more cynical.

For now, during these tough economic times, I will continue to believe that there are solutions. Perhaps there is a way of adapting the definition of the target market for the product which opens up a whole new revenue stream. Perhaps there are process or system solutions that can be rapidly implemented to streamline work and distribute it across experts and junior staff to offload or share the effort.

This is where a Solution Facilitator can help to make a difference within your organization and help you weather the downturn profitably.