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※This article is also available as a podcast on Spotify , Apple Podcasts , Amazon Music and Anchor (Japanese ONLY).

Today I would like to give you a detailed explanation of one of our values. It’s ”Add Value”. In past blogs, I have described ”Add Value” as follows.

Add Value
As it is, it means “Creating your own unique value. Understanding your value is very important. For example, if you take on a new project. Some people blame outside parties for the cause when the project turns out poorly. This person needs to understand the value required of themselves. If the cause of success or failure is external, then the person’s intervention value is zero. Be particular about your own value and role.

Regarding Value, “Issue-Driven” is very informative. If you have not read it yet, please read it.(Only Japanese edition.)

Below is a sentence from this book, which is important for understanding values.

*In my understanding, the “essence of value” consists of two axes. The first is “issue degree” and the second is “solution quality. (omission) I think of “issue degree” as “the level of importance of answering this problem in one’s situation,” and “solution quality” as “the degree to which one is able to clearly answer the issue. (omission) This is because work with a low “issue degree” has zero value to the beneficiaries (customers, clients, and evaluators), no matter how high the “quality of the solution” to the issue is. *

※Source: イシューからはじめよ ― 知的生産の「シンプルな本質」(Japanese Only)

It says Value = “Issue Degree” x “Solution Quality”. Perhaps many people see Value = “Quality of Solution”. This is due to our education system. We were always trained to solve problems with solutions when we were students. However, when we do business, there are few cases where a clear answer exists. It is necessary to have the ability to derive a solution from the myriad of options that are always available.

The key to being aware of Add Value is to select work with a high “issue degree”. In other words, discard useless work. If you are always in a complicated situation, you must ask yourself whether the work you are doing now is really high “issue-degree” work or not. In other words, is it really important?

Many tasks need to be done in order to achieve the goal. It is important to prioritize each task rather than tackle all of them unnecessarily. Once prioritized, we can then work on maximizing the “quality of solutions” within the allotted time.

Again, the reason for the lack of Value or the inability to generate Value is very often a situation where the task to be tackled is not important in the first place. You should periodically stop and ask, “Does this work really make sense?” Is it really an issue?” and ask these questions daily.

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