A Tool By Any Other Name

The other day I bought an axe.

It was a strange purchase, I admit. Mainly because I live in a small condo and I wasn't sure how I was going to use it.

But it looked really awesome. It had an amazingly shiny and sharp blade. It had a strong, carefully crafted handle. It looked great on TV: rugged men in work boots chopping things and tossing their axes into their pickup trucks.

Not surprisingly, my partner asked me, "Why did you buy this? What are you planning on using this for?"

"I don't know. I figure it's a tool, and we can always use tools. Right?"

Fast forward a couple of weeks later, our condo is trashed. I bought this new tool and I had to use it. Since there are no trees around, I went totally nuts -- Jack Nicholson/The Shining style.


Kind of stupid, huh? Well, whatever.

What Went Wrong

I saw a bright shiny object and listened to an ad agency telling me that I needed it. And because I had the tool, I used it. I totally destroyed my condo. My thought was: what's the point of having a tool, and not using it?

Today, I'm a little regretful.  All I wanted was to fit in. I got the tool that was going to make it all happen for me. All I ended up with was a $20,000 bill to fix the damage I did to the condo.  Plus my next door neighbor is suing me because I allegedly broke a water pipe in his wall and flooded his condo. 

But there is a bright side to this. Despite the "damage", because of my axe, I now have a lot of cool friends on "FourAxe" "Axebook" "LinkedAxe" and "Twitaxe" and I consider myself an elite member of these groups. The proof is the pudding. Look at how many people are following me: "Axeful of Talent" "PunkRockAxe" "Axe Ringleader" just to name a few.

Now that I'm the axe expert, I'm taking my knowledge of axes to work.  I had a meeting with the CEO and he agreed everyone should have these tools.  She doesn't know what we are going to do with these tools.  But she agrees with me that everyone should have these tools now, and it's time our organization bought axes for all the employees. And I love it. Employees come to me looking for my professional advice on how to use the axes.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks later. The lawsuits have already started. Since I think it's just because of misuse by a few bad apples, I don't think there's any reason to change anything.  A couple of people have suffered some damage: some bloody fingers, some hurt feelings.  But all in all, I assure the CEO we should not concern ourselves with these incidents and we should continue onward despite the obvious risk.

The Gig Is Up, The News Is Out...

You've probably figured by now I'm not talking about axes (or that I trashed my condo, or my colleagues used axes at work).  What I am talking about is any tool that anyone is telling you as an HR person you need to have for your organization. But for whatever reason, it just simply does not make any sense.

I thought about this topic after reading Bryon Abramowitz post on The HR Technologist about using 4 Square to make a hiring decision.  I replied to his post with a thoughtful disagreement and he responded in kind.  But I don't want to complain about Bryon, or his opinions. I've met him and he seems like a well-intentioned nice guy.  What I want to make note of is just because an expert, in whatever field, makes a recommendation, it does not mean that it is automatically right for you or your organization.

Never follow any leader blindly. If you do you could end up spending a lot of money and/or looking like a fool. Or becoming a tool yourself.