There’s a wonderful picture of a garden fork and spade that has been decorated with mosaic tiles on Pinterest. It’s hugely decorative and everyone seems to want one in their home. They wouldn’t, however, be useful when actually gardening.
I wonder how often that’s true in business too – where tools are not fit for the job or only for show?
I suspect those of you with gardens will have a number of more useful tools – unless of course someone else does it for you. How many of them you have, how many you use regularly and what they are will depend on a number of factors:
- the size of the garden
- style/type of garden
- the function of your garden
- the number of plants
- soil type
- your short/medium and long term objectives
- budget available
- gardening expertise available
- enthusiasm and passion for gardening
- significant other’s views on gardening and use of the garden
- their support for your efforts
- current condition of the tools
- ease of access to the tools
- the weather
However many you have – the fact remains that you wouldn’t:
- use a watering can to dig up a weed
- use a spade to prune your shrubs
- plant your seeds in the compost bin or even
- use a hose during a hosepipe ban
Could you say the same for the business area you work in? What tools do you have available and how many of them are you using? Or are they just hanging on the wall next to the award the business won in 1997?
How much more productive could your teams be if they had access to and were using the right tools for the job?
Alison Smith
The Purchasing Coach
