Think Outside the Tool [Rino Jose]

Remember this one?

In the figure below, find a way to draw four straight lines through the nine points without lifting your pen from the page.

The answer, of course, is to allow the lines to extend beyond the boundaries of the implied box:

This puzzle gave rise to one of the biggest business cliches ever: "Think Outside the Box".

The next logical challenge then is, can you find a way to draw two straight lines through the nine points without lifting your pen from the page? Not possible, you say? Can't make the box big enough? Here's a hint: "Think Outside the Tool".

What if you used a pen with a really wide diameter? Then you could do something like this:

This is a better tool for the job. Less work for you. Faster results.

Every tool has built in assumptions

When you use a fine-tipped pen, it's assumed that you want thin strokes so you can draw or write with fine detail. You wouldn't want to use this type of pen to paint a wall. Likewise, a paint roller is great for painting walls, but you wouldn't want to use it to sign a contract.

Assumptions aren't necessarily bad things. A more generic tool designed with fewer assumptions often requires more effort to use for a particular job. For instance, spreadsheet applications are great for summarizing tabular data and doing quick computations, but using them to manage projects requires a lot of thought and work (and rework) to set up -- and ongoing effort to keep updated.

Specialized tools make specific assumptions about how they will be used. If you use them as they were intended, they can make your job a lot simpler and easier.

When you start using a tool, understand what assumptions it's making and how these assumptions relate to the work at hand.

Learn Your Tools

If you find yourself using a tool every day, it's probably worth blocking off an hour this week so you can browse the documentation. Skim the table of contents or the index and jot down the features you're not familiar with. Do a websearch on the tips and tricks for the tool so you can get an idea of what others have found useful.

If any of these are relevant to your work right now, figure out how to use them today. If not, keep them in the back of your mind for when the time is right. Investing an hour to learn the tools you use every day can pay for itself many times over down the road.

When all you have is a hammer...

When your tools aren't working well, or when you and your team seem to be spending too much time fighting them, even after you've taken the time to learn them, you might need a different tool.

Take a good hard look at your current tools. What assumptions are built into them? Do they help you do your job, or do you need to hire someone just to keep them running? If you're not using the right tool for the job, find (or build) a better one.

Don't just get by with the tools you have. What if you could save 4 days of effort per week with the right tool? Wouldn't that have a huge impact on your organization? There are tools like this (I've built one). Use them.
(originally posted on Management Revolution)

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Rino Jose is the principal co-founder of Lakeway Technologies, a startup that develops web apps for automating engineering and project management. He has developed software and managed software teams professionally for over 15 years. As a manager and management consultant, he has led turnarounds for multiple engineering teams. Rino holds a B.S. from U.C. Berkeley and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania with cross-disciplinary focus between Engineering, Computer Science, and the Wharton Business School.