Using Tools Purposeful Selection and Sequencing of Tools for Impact
How do you remove a screw if you don’t have a screwdriver? Sure, there are other ways, but they’ll probably be more difficult, less efficient and maybe even destructive. Sustainable improvement and innovation situations are no different.
The right tool can make all the difference to success. With more tools and the right tools in our toolboxes, we can handle more situations, and make our own work and our work with others more effective and successful.
In our terms a tool is an instrument that makes achieving outcomes more effective and easier. This definition highlights an important principle – while tools can be extremely useful they are not really the point! The first critical thing is to be very clear about the outcome we need to achieve. The second critical thing is to have a logical set and sequence of steps that will help us achieve the outcome. Then we can start to think about tools that will make implementing the steps and achieving the outcome easier.
While the tools aren’t really the point, having only a few tools in our toolboxes can severely limit our capacity to deal with different situations. Most people have at least two tools in their toolbox – ‘Discussion’, and ‘Argument’! While this statement is of course ‘tongue in cheek’, our experience is that these two tools get pulled out of the toolbox and used in far too many situations – situations where the outcomes hoped for and needed will not be achieved if these are the only tools available.
We have selected the following twenty-three tools to share with you. We have many more tools in our full SI&I toolkit, but these are our favourites because they apply to so many situations: