As we learn how to use tools, we sometimes fail to imagine that they may work in other ways. Can you name three everyday tools that you might use but that have another capability or even another purpose?

A few years ago, we were on a family vacation in southern Spain. About a week or so into the trip, while in Granada, I felt the need for a haircut. Most wouldn’t notice the few millimeters of length, but I knew I needed one and went to a barbershop just off the plaza at city center. 

The brand of the shop was, let’s say, nontraditional.

Very clean, well-lit, vibrant wall paintings, a fully tattooed barber complete with multiple piercings, and no wait. Three empty chairs. I sat in the chair the barber waved me toward. We communicated poorly due to the language barrier, but he got the gist of my request. I was only slightly nervous as my hair had been cut by some inexperienced sailors before, and I knew that nothing would fix a bad haircut like two weeks.

The barber proceeded to do what I thought was a masterful job. Most striking was his holding the electric clipper upside down. You read that correctly—by pointing the guard down toward the hair and dragging across or down the scalp. I’ve been going to barbers for decades, have watched it done in the mirror, and have never ever seen the clipper turned over. Anyone who has been to a barber knows the tool is used in an up and slightly away motion so as not to dig in. I left with what I thought was a terrific haircut and a fresh step.

Earlier in the year, my son-in-law, William, and I were installing some electric patio shades. It involved reaching work and both of us working on ladders inside and outside of the pool cage at the same time—a two-person job. We had multiple drills with attachments at hand to speed things along, drilling holes, tapping screws, or feeding bolts. 

At one point, a screw head was stripped.

I thought we needed some pliers to manually back the stripped screw out. I’ve done this many times, having learned from my dad how to undo this situation. William, however, took a drill, removed the bit, and placed the drill attachment point directly onto the screw head. Tightening the drill’s claw onto the screw head, he could then quickly back the screw out. No pliers, no frustration, no profanity.

I had not only never seen that done, but I had also not ever considered that as an optional use of a drill. The corrective effort took less than a minute. It might have taken me five minutes just to go find my pliers!

Are there tools in your tool kit that you only use a certain way? Do you consider specialty tools only for a specific purpose? Here comes the twist.

AI tools will require you to think differently than you are thinking right now about how you do your work. It sounds somewhat obvious, but many are still only vaguely familiar with the AI tools within their reach.

We’re in the early stages of what we imagine AI can do for us.

For most, it’s starting to assist us with simple or repetitive tasks. We can train AI to mimic certain patterns like our own language or formatting style. For others, AI is becoming a colleague where you might bounce an idea and get some feedback. The iterative process can help you start more quickly, and then refine as you go.

When driving ships in formation and the battle group is signaled to change positions, officers are taught to get the ship pointed in the general direction quickly so as not to waste time—we refine the exact course to station as we go. AI tools can help speed your processes because you don’t have to wonder what to do. You can simply ask good questions, respond to the feedback, and iterate until you are satisfied. It’s still your product. You create and refine it. 

As the two-headed DOGE monster is refining its plans for a government overhaul, the use of tools in different ways is really at the center of the effort. Think of the bureaucratic review processes that can take months and years within our government. Certifications, approvals, and cross-departmental coordination take far too long because humans are touching and evaluating parts of the process that no longer require human intervention.

AI tools, once trained, will be able to compress decision cycles and approval processes, flagging only the issues that truly require human intervention. We will come to a place where humans are in the loop to deal with the exception rather than the 99% that is regular, if not mundane. 

I encourage you to spend some time and think more deeply about how your company and your workflow are organized.

Today, you might not have the requisite understanding or capacity to imagine how it could be changed for the better. Do you have the humility to admit it? If so, great. If not, there’s still time. What are you doing to bring new tools into your world next month or next year?  Do you have the right help at your disposal, and is your team using the tools as effectively as they could? Ask around.