When we get creative and start to think outside the box we can find tools and skills we have and learn in one situation can be used for many other situations. What do I mean by that? I was bush walking over the holidays on tracks I hadn't been on before and that had been washed out with some bad weather. You'd think that would have been enough to deter me, but no, I thought - how hard can it be to find the track and then follow it back again?

At the beginning of this walk I decided to turn on an app I had downloaded to my phone - 'Map My Run'. I had no phone reception but wanted to track how far I was walking. I only got about 700 meters into the walk and had to turn back because the 'track' which was tough to find in places was impassable due to a log slide. I was disappointed it was a nice day and a nice walk along the river but around I turned. As I was trekking back I got to a point which didn't look like the way I had come so I decided to head away from the river in the hopes of joining the upper track. No problems the river stayed on my right and I was heading back towards my start point. Or so I thought...

Suddenly I couldn't hear any traffic and didn't recognize the scenery - uh oh. I was confused because the water was still on my right. This is when I decided to look at my app and as I had thought I was too far south of where I started so I headed north but had to cross the water. What the heck, how did that happen? After I crossed the river I rejoined the upper track I was looking for and the water was was again on my right! As it turned out there was a creek that was full from the rain that came off the river I was following.

How glad was I that I turned on the app to track the distance! As it turned out it was more useful to show me where I'd gone off track, the direction I had to go to get back on track and how far I still had to go to get back to where I started!

The point? It's not just technology but many other skills and tools that we have that we can use in ways that we had not thought of or expected to. If you are sales person for example, that's great at negotiation, how can you use some of those same skills to facilitate better communication and collaboration with your colleagues?

What skills and tools do you have that you could apply to new or different situation?