I helped someone move a glider in preparation of welcoming a new little one. But it was going to be tricky. The glider was heavy, and the hallway was narrow because of a staircase. We could lift it over the railing to give us more room, but that would be heavy, awkward, and potentially precarious. Why not work smarter not harder? We could use the banister as leverage, placing the chair on a thick blanket to slide, so we could reserve our strength for balancing the chair as we slid it closer to the room where it needed to go. The bulk of the work would be maneuvering through the door frames.

It worked. It was a relatively quick and painless move. And it was a good reminder for me to consider the best way to approach something before diving in. I hope that’s my approach most of the time. But I get in a rush sometimes. Of course, we need to quickly respond to an emergency, but life isn’t a series of emergencies. There is a lot of time for reflection, problem-solving, and planning. Whether or not we take that time is up to us.

Working smarter doesn’t mean the work is easy. It’s still hard at times. And working smarter should never be at the expense of people, because, in the end, that’s not smart. People are important, and we need to realize how our choices will impact them. That doesn’t mean we make everyone happy. We can’t bend to everyone’s preferences. But we can consider the impact any approach will have on others and communicate with them.

Young kids might miss parents when they travel for work, and no amount of begging will take away the need for the person to travel. Harshly stating, “Deal with it” to young kids won’t help much. Knowing a little something that will help each child’s personality might go a long way. At work, there’s been a situation where progress also means a heavier workload for specific teams. When the progress releases to customers but isn’t communicated to teams, they’re unprepared. It’s happened repeatedly despite requests for timely updates. There are simple solutions, but the proactive plan hasn’t been put into place, and that leads to frustration. It’s definitely not a work-smarter-not-harder situation, and the impact on people reveals it.

We will face challenges daily that test whether we think it through and do our best to take a smarter approach, or if we try to muscle through. We often cannot take shortcuts, but we can take smart-cuts. And along the way, we invite others to problem-solve alongside us. We steward those around us well when we think it through, because we invest in them. We collaborate. We communicate. And that’s important.

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