Tools – Work Smarter, Not Harder

In my area of the world, Louisville, KY, there is new construction taking place downtown. Immediately at the foot of the Clark Memorial Bridge (2nd Street Bridge) stands what will be the new KFC Yum! Center. It will house the University of Louisville Cardinals basketball team and provide a great venue for concerts, events of all types and will surely add more hustle and bustle to the downtown livelihood.

I drive by this site every Wednesday morning while on my to a weekly networking event and I notice the same things every time I drive by. You see, there is a stop light at the end of the bridge, so often I am sitting there waiting for my turn to go and I tend to look around. The men and women who are working on the project are walking from all directions to report for work this early morning hour. They all have their lunch, they all have on a hardhat and they all have on a brightly colored safety vest. From above, I’m sure they would look like a steady stream of ants marching in lines all headed toward the same destination.

Their formation and their timing isn’t what really strikes me. It’s their tools of the trade. Granted, many of their tools await them on the site, but they still have access to them at any time. Much like we have tools available to us, they also have a wide assortment of options enabling them to achieve their goal. Get the building built. Sounds simple, right? Not so much.

Let’s talk about some of their tools. First, the hardhat. On a construction site, stuff falls from above. It just happens. The hardhat protects the wearer from those small items that might come down on them. Granted, if a cable breaks and an I beam comes down on someone, the hardhat is not going to help the poor sap who just happens to be in the line of fire. He’s a goner. The hardhat protects from nuts, bolts, nails, etc. The bigger stuff? Well, best of luck.

The safety vest enables workers to be visible. Ah, to be seen. Important! But again, the falling tool chest from four stories above isn’t going to be thwarted by the vest.

With these two pieces of safety gear, the workers are preparing in two ways. The safety vest attempts to prevent an incident from occurring. The helmet protects the person when things go a little wrong. One is action to prevent and the other is action to protect.

What do you have active in your life or your business to prevent the wrong things from even happening? And second, what protection do you have in place and how prepared are you to react when things go really, really wrong?

If we would just use the simple tools that are available to us and pay attention to the details about the results, we could all celebrate more often. GO DO!™