According to USGA Rule 4, golfers are allowed to carry 14 clubs in their bag.
Each club must be useful to the player, whether you are a pro, an amateur, or a weekend hacker.
If you think about it, having more is not always better. I am pretty sure that Tiger Woods or Rory McIlroy could crush me on the golf course with one or two clubs while I carry the maximum of 14.
The right tool with the right training makes all the difference.
It’s simple, not easy.
What does being useful mean to you?
A pro golfer with one club can dominate an amateur with 14 clubs.
In the right hands, any club will work.
In the wrong hands, no club will make a difference.
In today’s rapidly changing world, our choices increase everyday.
A Google Search for “productivity app” returns 1,170,000,000 results in a quick 0.59 seconds.
More apps, more people, more ideas do not help you to be more useful.
“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.”
-Bill Gates
It can be tempting to want to hire more people because we have more work.
But do we have more work simply because we have not optimized how we do the work?
More bodies on your team do not guarantee more successful outcomes.
Think about all the various parts of your business. When was the last time you tried to improve the actual process?
“Your business” can mean your job at work, your job as a spouse, your job as a parent.
When was the last time you tried to get creative on how to do more with less?
At work, are you maximizing your team’s potential for output?
Most importantly, are you maximizing your own potential?
You can have the latest and greatest range finder, golf ball, or state-of-the-art golf clubs, but that will not be of much use to an amateur who has not put in the work. These tools are not useful.
More practice, a better swing, or better course management could be more useful.
Before you add a bunch of shiny new technology to your work world, think about HOW you work.
Think about what is most useful to you.
It could be as simple as better communication.
It could be making sure you have the right information at the right time to make the right (or at least best) decisions.
Do you need to adjust how your partners, contractors and architects report on their progress?
Procore does you and your team no good if the data is not entered correctly.
MS Project does you and your team no good if every schedule is instantly out of date when it is issued.
BIM or Revit does you and your team no good if the drawings are not coordinated between the various design disciplines.
The next time you think you need to add more people, more technology, or more of anything, try to think about your process, your performance, and your potential.
Have you put in the work to make sure you have the right mindset to be useful?
The Real Con 006