“If you don’t know why it’s working well when it’s working well, you can’t fix it when it breaks.” Andy Stanley
Candidly, there are a lot of things in my world that I’m not sure how they work.
I get in car and push a button, I hope it works.
I flip a switch on my heater/air conditioner, I hope it does the right thing.
The list goes on and on.
But, taken in context to our jobs where we rely on it going well to do well, Stanley’s observation makes some sense.
Are you a student of your job? Our organization?
Do you understand how exactly your job fits in? How your performance contributes to the organization performing well?
Are you learning more each day? Is there something you could know that you don’t know that could help matters when things go wrong?
It serves us well to have each of us get better at performing our job. It helps us when you learn at a deeper level how your tools work. It speeds things up when you don’t have to wait for others to fix it when it breaks.
Don’t get me wrong. Safety is critical. You shouldn’t wander into unknown areas that could hurt you. But, express a knowledge to know more and learn more. It’s a path to excellence.
