I’m as big a fan as anyone of solving problems the right way. I firmly believe you should identify all the underlying causes and brainstorm all the possible solutions. I’m a big believer in weighing the pros and cons of various options and choosing a plan of action that will fix the problem thoroughly and completely. I find recurring issues distracting and frustrating and think taking the time to tackle them thoroughly, once and for all, is crucial.

Most of the time.

But I also think there are situations where a quick fix is perfectly acceptable. Sometimes an issue is critical but finding the time and energy to address it holistically is just not going to happen anytime soon. In the meantime, the problem keeps getting bigger and bigger, impacting more and more people. In these cases, you may need to ask a simple question:

“What’s one thing we can do right now?”

What’s one thing we can do to diffuse this situation with an unhappy customer? What’s one thing we can do to improve communication between upper management and the rest of the company? What’s one thing we can do to cut costs on this project? What’s one thing we can do to build a better relationship between these two departments? What’s one thing we can do to help this new manager who’s gotten off to a rocky start?

You’re looking for ideas that can be implemented quickly and easily, steps you can take to make things at least a bit better for the short term. The goal is to buy a little time and reign in the damage before it gets worse. So go ahead and identify the low hanging fruit. Find the low effort/high impact action.

Just be sure to remember that the quick fix isn’t permanent. You’ll soon need to remove the Band Aid and put together a plan for surgery. But for now, doing that one thing is probably much better than doing nothing at all.

Are you dealing with a problem right now that could benefit from a quick fix? Think this idea might work for you? Share your experiences in the comments section below.