Fahrenheit 104.5!

Consider the following scenario:

It’s 10 PM and your baby is still awake. She’s been fussy and irritable all evening and doesn’t want anything you’ve given her to soothe her. You’re starting to think she might be sick. You go to the cabinet and grab a thermometer and take her temperature. Sure enough! She’s burning up with a fever of 104.5!

In alarm, you page your pediatrician and start to get ready for a trip to the ER. You also give your baby a dose of infant’s Tylenol to start bringing her temperature under control, because that’s what knocks a fever!

Why are you so afraid? Because anyone who is a parent “knows” that high fevers are harmful, right??

What if you are the doctor on duty at the ER when the frantic parent rushes the baby in at 10:30 PM? How does this situation look from your viewpoint? Of course, you don’t like the temperature you’re seeing…but unlike the parent, you are more concerned about what is causing the fever than the fever itself and immediately begin to examine the infant for signs of infection. After all, a fever is a symptom, not a primary cause. It’s merely an indicator that something else is wrong.

Why don’t you immediately place the baby on a cooling bed, turn on all the fans, and give more Tylenol to bring down the fever? Because doctors understand that the underlying reason for the baby's fever is likely more important than the fever itself. If you can fix the underlying problem, you’ll fix the fever too.

It's easy to be like the example parent in the above scenario. Symptoms of a problem are often what catch our notice. They are how we are actually experiencing the problem in real life. Sometimes, like a high fever, the symptoms are so alarming that we focus on them and miss the true problem.??

How about your business? Do you have concerns about how things are going for your company? Maybe you are experiencing frustration between departments or lapses in the communication of important ideas and documents. Productivity may be declining or perhaps you are experiencing a high turnover rate in your personal.?

“Symptoms are how we actually experience an underlying problem in real life.”

How do you separate the issues you are experiencing from the true, underlying problem? How do you know if you are identifying an Actual Problem (one that really exists) versus a Perceived Problem (the one you think exists)?

A lot of time and money can be wasted trying to alleviate symptoms without making any real progress toward solving the issue generating them in the first place.?

What you need is a “doctor” and here at Effective Performance Strategies, we have our “Ph.D.” in Actual Problem Identification. Let us come help you diagnose the gaps in your processes and people and prescribe effective, customized treatment!

We won’t waste time trying to keep symptoms at bay like our anxious example parent. Instead, we’ll apply proven strategies to fix your specific problems at the root of their cause, eliminating the disease and saving you time and money in the process!

Stay tuned to our weekly blog post for upcoming case studies highlighting how differentiating between symptoms (Perceived Problem) and the underlying disease (Actual Problem) can boost performance for your business!

Interested in learning more? Check us out at?www.epszone.com.

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