Tools

Intentions and Outcomes

Serendipity: Frustrated with some baked-in camera phone settings this week for a picture I wanted to snap, I went searching for a possible answer on a fix for a look that might harken back to simpler digital times. Or heaven forbid, an actual 35 mm film feel. Fast forward, and somehow I landed on a Substack entry on technical jackets. Go figure. The author argued that a 25-year-old BAS (British Army Staff) jacket did the trick in winter better than all his modern gear. I had to laugh.

Better to use a (supposedly) lesser tool and get the desired result. That was the lesson. If the new tool doesn’t generate the outcome you wish, what is the point of the tool/process/vessel?

We encounter variations on feature bloat in everything in our lives - not just electronic technology. Is a pair of running shoes and no blockers on the calendar which enables you to get out the door and run four times a week more important than a modern gym with saunas, endless stacks of Rogue plates and smoothie bars you only visit once a week? If not, what’s your why? This is not a screed on modernism, but it’s worth remembering that the tool at hand, in whatever form—from meditation to classes or technology—drives the result.

We laugh at the old joke about a shovel – you’re not buying a shovel, you’re buying a hole in the ground. And there are times it is true that speed or time to completion is a big driver. The “don’t make perfect the enemy of good” mantra. Ultimately, who would have known had my photo not produced quite the outcome I wanted? Well, I for one. The school of Close Enough, Now Move On was in session, and I was being sent to the corner.

Use the wrong tool, expect a bad outcome.

Often it is easy to forget that we can control and modify the tool to improve the outcome. Frustrated that you keep losing parts of weekends to family outings or activities that put a dent in your schedule? Make the effort to do the extra workout earlier in the week. Put yourself at 105% of plan so when the long-lost friend calls after a year and wants to catch up, you aren’t mad at yourself for missing your goal. You lose 5% but you’re right where you want to be. Either that or say “no” and plan on having far fewer friends, which seems unpalatable. Those are the options. The point is not to bark about priorities but to look at our tools (our abilities, our calendar, our whatever) and make sure they are capable of getting the outcome we want.

The other side of the coin is knowing that what you’re looking for matters. Too often I hear managers wanting what amounts to fairly vague results. We need to improve customer engagement, the partnership needs better traction, our visibility needs to improve. Who can execute and act on that? Live and work with real intention and things get a lot easier… it may even help you seek out a better tool, the right tool. In the meantime, I’ll be here trying to hack this iPhone to act more like a 1960s Nikon. Wish me luck.

General store - Tanzania