The FAST Way to Solve Any Problem in this World

Everyone wants a Fast way to solve problems in this world, like the Little India Riot on 8 December 2013.

But first we must distinguish between a problem and an issue. A problem is one that will cause serious problems, e.g. intoxication will cause accidents. An issue is one that may cause problem, but that problem is not serious, the most irritation or unhappiness. Like not enough pay is an issue, but will not cause accidents (if accidents happen due to low pay, it is likely to be sabotage, which is more serious than a problem).

F: Face the Problem. Do not run away from it, never Blame, give Excuses or Deny that the problem exist.

A: Attributing Factor for the problem. This is the main cause of problems and not issues. Like the Singapore's Little India Riot problem that happened along Race Course Road on Sunday 8th December 2013 is attributed to intoxication, not unhappiness. It happened that the victim was behaving improperly (he took off his pants) in the bus and was ordered by the bus coordinator to alight the bus. As he was drunk, he got out and went behind the bus and was killed by the bus accidentally. The mob that attacked the police, burned the police vehicles and rioted were all drunk and that's why they were so fierce and uncontrollable. Imagine if the victim and the workers only drink green tea, the riot would not have happened, right? So the Attribute is actually Alcohol!

S: Solution for the problem. The simple solution is to ban or reduce the sale of alcohol so that it is difficult to get drunk in Little India. In one simple stroke, the problem is solved as long as we can find the Attributing factor. If we still get stuck in issues (like overcrowding) we will not be able to solve the problem fast enough.

T: Take Action and Track the Results. Yes, results need to be tracked to see if the solution is good enough for the problem to be eliminated totally.

There you have, the FAST way to solve problems: Face the Problem, find the key Attributing factor, Solution and Take action and track the results.

By Andy Ng, Chief Trainer Coach at Asia Trainers

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