Taking a Different Road

So many of us commute to work each day. We go over bridges, through tunnels, take highways. We seldom think about it, beyond hoping that there isn’t a huge traffic jam that will make us late.

Reading about the closure – and reopening – of the Bay Bridge in California started me thinking about my commute and the roads I take to work every day. What if a road closed? Would I know another way to work? Can I even get there another way?

This is the sort of thing that happens at work every day. I have to solve a problem. I start down one path to do so and realize, at some point, that perhaps the method I’m embarking on will not get me the result I want.  So, I have to re-orient my thinking – take a different road – to get me the result I want.

The trick to being able to do that successfully is having the knowledge of the resources around me that can be used to solve the problem. A project going off the tracks? Perhaps a quick refresher on managing projects would help me get the endeavor back on track.  Can’t create a pivot table in Excel? Reading a few lines of a book on Excel 2007 would walk me through the steps. 

So, in essence, I spend every work day finding the right road – the right path – to get me where I need to go.  In this context – the work context – I am good on my feet. I can toggle between doing my job and finding an answer pretty easily. I know what tools I have – courses, books, videos – and I know how to find them via SkillPort and use them.  Sadly, in my car… well… I have a bad sense of direction.  If someone closed my road to work, I’d sit there until it reopened. Perhaps it’s time to invest in a GPS.

By: Rachel Levine