Look in the Box, Only for a Tool.

Are you using the right tool?  Do you have the right tool?  Do you even know what tool you need?

I just spent fifteen minutes trying to get my wireless mouse to work.  I changed the battery.  I played with the on/off button.  I even shook it…. I could not understand why it would not work.  Everything was turned on and in the right position. 

Well, I took a deeper look at the tool I was using, I noticed that one of the parts was not the part that matched the rest of the machine – my wireless mouse.  I had removed the tiny thumb drive and had switched it out while I was looking for pictures on another thumb drive.  They are similar in appearance with a slight variance.  

Knowing that you are using the right tool for the job, and knowing what the device is capable of is paramount.  How many would have considered the mouse broken and would have ultimately returned it and bitched out a customer service representative, or perhaps just went out and just bought another one?

The mouse obviously is a metaphor for so many other things.  So much time and energy and resources could be saved if we only knew what we had and how to use it. Some people throw out instruction guides and manuals without consulting them and are later amazed that they have spare parts or find out that the darn thing does not work right.  Then they are frustrated when they have to call a helpline and wait for hours to finally talk to a real person.

If we could take a few moments to value what we have in our hands and in our possession to actually understand what it is.  That tool box would be so much smaller and efficient that we could actually find and apply what we have.  Just like you cannot sell a product that’s in the stockroom, or motivate an employee unless you know what and how to leverage and manage then you cannot execute and deliver.

Jeff S Turnbull