The vacuum cleaner wasn’t working. No suction. Someone had assumed it was broken.
But it wasn’t. The hose was blocked. Problem solved in two minutes.
A week later, someone picks it up and says,
“Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you that the vacuum wasn’t working.”
Yes, because the hose was blocked. And, no, we don’t need a new one.
Here’s the thing most people miss: There’s always a process to diagnosing a problem.
Every tradie, mechanic, or engineer knows this. If the job isn’t working, you don’t just throw your hands up and say, “Yeah, nah, must be stuffed.”
You start at step one:
- Check the obvious. (Is the hose or foot blocked?)
- Test the following link. (Is the bag full?)
- Move up the chain. (Is the motor running?)
You follow the process until you isolate the fault. That’s how you fix things.
But most people don’t think like that anymore. They stop at the first symptom and never dig deeper. They don’t realise that diagnosis is a skill – one that applies to everything.
Because life, like machinery, is built on systems.
If you can learn to troubleshoot a vacuum, you can troubleshoot a team, a business, or even yourself. You just need to learn the process.
This week’s Motivator:
Don’t jump to conclusions – follow the process. The fix is usually found three steps past where most people stop looking.
Prompt for the week:
What’s something that isn’t “working” in your world right now? And, have you actually gone through the steps to find the blockage?
