A few weekends ago, my husband and I were painting our porch floor. It was a straight-forward job: he was doing the edging and I was doing the rolling. Of course, even the easiest of jobs can get messy. In my case, I had reached the roller too far over and splattered paint on the baseboard. Of course, this was after I had painted a large section of the floor in front of the baseboard. It was impossible to reach across to clean it and my husband had stepped away to do something for one of our children. I had to step in the freshly rolled paint to clean the mistake. It was messy – my foot was covered in paint, and I had to roll the section again to remove the footprint.
Toward the end of the job, a similar situation arose. My husband left a tool on a window sill after we had (once again) painted the floor in front of it. What was different this time was that we worked together to find a way to get the tool without ruining the paint. I held his belt to support him as he reached over to grab the tool. As a team, we resolved our issue creatively and efficiently.
As the paint dried, I realized there was a business lesson to be learned from this home improvement project. I made a mess, and rather than waiting for my husband to help me, I made the mess even bigger. Then, when another challenge arose, we worked together to resolve the issue cleanly.
When faced with a mess in the business world, many people would do what I did – try to fix the problem alone in hopes no one will notice. Sometimes, you get lucky, and no one sees the mistake. It’s more common though, for the mess to get bigger. The better course of action to take is to engage an expert to help you identify the solution quickly and efficiently. Business can be messy, and when a situation arises that you can’t handle yourself, ask for help. Find the partner or professional team that can provide you with a solution that is creative, efficient – and keeps the paint off your feet.
Author: Robin Imbesi