D.I.Y - Applying My Learning to Business
For those of you who know me well, you know that I have been engaging in several D.I.Y. renovation projects within my home. I have learned so much from each of these projects. Not only have I picked up on a few hands-on skills (as well as a few bruises and very sore muscles), but I have also had several reminders of key learning moments that I have applied back to my office job. I thought I would share a few of these life lessons over the course of the next few weeks/months.
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The Soap Trick
Maybe you already know the soap trick, but I had never heard of this trick before we renovated our living room. As part of that renovation, we decided to redo the trim; we thought stained oak trim would provide the polished look we were going for. Oak, as I'm sure you're aware, is a very durable, hard wood. Meaning, it is not easy to nail oak trim up. In addition, we did not want to use big nails through the beautiful boards. So, after having several nails bend as we hammered then in, we tried using small drill bits to prep small holes for the finishing nails. Unfortunately, the drill bits kept breaking on the hard oak planks.
Now What?
While in the process of dealing with this trim debacle, my dad-in-law gave us a call. He has been doing D.I.Y projects for decades and knows a little about everything - a true D.I.Y Generalist. As we're sharing our progress (or lack of progress), he says - "why didn't you use the soap trick?" As though everyone knows the "soap trick." So, we informed him that we had zero clue what he was talking about. He then shared with us that if you take a piece of hard bar soap and rub it on the nail before nailing it in, the nail goes in smoothly. Yes, of course the soap trick! So, we tried the soap trick and indeed it worked. Trim goes up and the living room has the polished look we wanted! Yay!
Now, this wasn't the first time Dad gave us a hack that made a project easier...and every time he shares, he shares the insight as though it is common knowledge. We have finally learned to ask Dad if he knows of any tricks that could help us during a project before we get started. Now, I still believe in learning by doing and that mistakes can provide great learning moments. However, I believe learning from others is just as important.
This reminded me of a few key life lessons:
- Ask for help - knowing Dad has so much experience, we should have asked him in advance if he knew of any issues we may encounter and any ideas that could help us out. Then we should have reached out again once we encountered the problem to see if he had any ideas on how to overcome the challenges. Same thing in the office - reach out to subject matter experts, tenured employees, and others that may have been in a similar situation before and could share their expertise. Then be willing to reach out for help when we reach a roadblock that you find a solution on your own.
- Share your insight - you may have knowledge or information that you think others already know, but that assumption may waste time and effort. So, share your learning with others and communicate. So much time can be wasted in the office because we do not actively share information.
- Be open - sometimes we get so stuck in a problem we become closed to creative solutions, but by being open to innovative, 'out-of-the-box' solutions, you may find the clean-cut solution you needed!