Stuck? Check Your Strategy First

I was checking Reddit's Power Automate subreddit and saw someone with a complex problem. I won't link it here because the problem itself was not important but they were trying to do something that is not possible in Power Automate.

The first comment on that thread was spot on. "I don't think that's the right tool for the job, why don't you use X". (paraphrasing)

I see this happening a lot and it's something that is not only in Power Automate, but development and overall life.

If we're trying to do something and hitting a wall, common sense would tell us to stop and go around the wall, but instead we try to find solutions to go through the wall instead of around it.

Let's check how this happens and what we can do about it.

We don't see it

Sometimes we don't see it. A wall is literally in front of us, and we don't see it. We go online and try to find a solution to our problem instead of evaluating the problem first.

When this happens, our first instinct is to say "this tool sucks", and sometimes that's true, but our strategy could be flawed as well.

So why not ask, "Why am I doing this?" or "Am I hitting a wall?" Better still, "Am I overcomplicating things?"

Which leads me to what to do in these situations.

Stepping back

I won't spell out that Einstein quote about doing the same thing and expecting a different result.

When something starts looking too complex and we hit a wall, the best thing to do is to step back and analyze the problem in another way.

So if something looks complex it's probably because it is complex.

Change strategy.

For example, if you have issues with Excel files in your workflow, why not convert them first to something you can handle more easily, and then work with that?

There are hundreds of cases where a simple sidestep could solve the problem, but sometimes this isn't the problem.

Wrong tool for the job

The proverbial "hammer" that we use for all tasks. In the case of Power Automate I see people trying to do incredible automations that fail because they want to use Power Automate to do things and fail. It isn't the tool for that.

So sometimes it's not only changing the strategy, it's changing the tool altogether.

Don't pick the tool and then solve the problem. Understand the problem and then pick the tool for that job.

I know that it's not always possible (for example, the right tool is too expensive), but spending time with the incorrect tool for the job will make you less productive and in the end won't help you at all.

Final Thoughts

I keep this as a rule of thumb. If I catch myself creating too many exceptions and trying to fix problems over and over it's because something is flawed in the approach. Step back, check if you're hitting a wall and don't try to use a hammer for everything.

Sounds like common sense, but if you pay attention, we all do it.

Photo by Pete Willis on Unsplash