Don't Kilz the Messenger

My apartment, thanks to my dear friend with dogged persistence and a great sense of style, is finally colorful and homey. Part of why I was reluctant to paint it in the first place was my sense of the work vs. the result - I don't spend a lot of time here, so why should it be anything but white? Her argument, interestingly enough, was that once it was beautiful I would want to be there more.

We ended up using Kilz Paint from Wal-Mart, guaranteed one-coat for life. I was pretty impressed impressed with the smooth glide even on my crazy textured walls, and, like every other product in my life that's wowed me, I wanted everybody to know about it. So I started telling them. Kilz paint is the best paint in the universe. It's thick, it goes on with one coat (just like it says on the label!) I am wowed. It's a product that does what it promises and makes evangelists out of buyers in a category that most people don't look forward to needing. I am also wowed by the fact that 4 of the 7 people I told about it told me "Kilz is a primer - you need to paint over it with paint." My thought? Kilz definitely could be a primer (it's thick enough) but you can dye it in 1,000 colors and it went on as smooth as 3-4 coats of a competitor's product. Why was everyone stuck in the mud here?

Here's the problem. Kilz may very well be a primer. However, it can be dyed to over 1,000 colors which means it wasn't meant to be painted over. It even comes with a lifetime guarantee of being one coat. My guess is that whoever invented it probably did it by accident, or maybe dropped some dye in primer one day just as an experiment. Voila!

What ideas are on the tip of your tongue right now? What aspects of your job or company could run faster, better or more efficiently? What products do you need and which ones don't you need? Are employees engaged? Challenged? Motivated?

If not, it might just be time to drop some dye in the primer and see what happens.