What I do each day [ Work / Life - same / same ]

I have mentioned a few times throughout my posts that I am interested in creating a better world and there are many ways to approach this.

When I first came to Finland, I began Business English language training and over the course of 14 years, I have encountered several thousand professionals from just about all fields. Medical and industrial, design, retail, sales and of course, Tech. In general though, Finland is populated with engineers of all kinds and from the get go, I noticed that there was a massive oversight in the training and development of employees.

Several years ago, I began my own consulting business with the purpose of filling some of the gaps in my own small way. You may have noticed that skill development, what helps it and what hinders it, is the focus or a general undercurrent through many of my texts. This is because it is not only my work, but also my interest area that drives my work. It is a circuit that oscillates energy back and forth, to and from each other. For me, and I would argue that for most, a passion cannot be contained to a work area or personal life, it straddles all worlds. I am also quite a keen observer of people and culture (mostly the negative sides) and this again adds calories to the system.

As said, there are many different types of engineers in Finland, and this is with whom I predominantly spend my professional time. Finland has quite a strong history when it comes to manufacturing and tech industries but in recent years has struggled to compete globally. There are several reasons for this, some more complicated than others but I will broach only a few here today.

Firstly, Education. Finland is a world renowned educator with a lot of money spent (education at all levels is essentially free) and methodologies developed to consistently top global charts. This is also part of the weakness. Put simply and briefly, institutionalised education does not cover all skills necessary to be consistently successful. Teaching to pass tests has limited value. The attitude is slowly changing here but institutions move like anchored boats, in mud, surrounded by mountains.

Secondly, Culture. The skills missing at the schools are generally of the social awareness/interaction types. In many countries, this would be substituted by the culture. In Finland however, the culture does not support this as a generalised Finn is much happier by themselves or with close family in the forest than with anyone that they haven't known for over 25 years. Getting a Finnish friend is hard, but once you have one, they are there for life.

Thirdly, Attitude. If it ain't broke don't fix it attitudes can be observed in many areas and are often juxtapositioned against some of the world's most cutting edge tech. These are missed opportunities and if avoided out of habit, create potential for many more missed opportunities. There is also somewhat of a superiority complex that overestimates the strengths and ignores weaknesses. As you can imagine, I am super popular in Finland for pointing out risks and missed opportunities.

Again, I am simplifying heavily but, these things come together to create a loss of potential in the market place. Good ideas and products fall through the cracks too often. As the growth of globalisation has steadily developed and ramped-up, Finland could not keep up the pace to bring those three main things together fast enough as they relied too heavily on limited scope education and discounted other requirements into near oblivion.

So, this is what I do:
(apologies for the very dodgy diagram I whipped up)

I speak with clients, generally management and key personnel, and discuss a whole range of topics both inside and outside of work competencies. I really do get to know them well. Over time, we build a great deal of trust and openness that grants me access to areas many others are unable to gain. There are no formalised tests, no listed methodology, no right or wrong. Just conversation. At times, very, very deep conversation. Through this conversation, gaps appear. Knowledge gaps and skill gaps in many areas (not just the targets). As you can see simply from the diagram above, a core skillset can be made of many components and these can also vary greatly in importance. As an example let's look at presentation skills.

To present well takes a lot more than good content (something that the Finns invest their time heavily in), it also takes speaking skills, body language skills, rhetorical questioning skills, signposting, appropriate pauses, not to mention the language skills like grammar, pronunciation, speed tone, rhythm, intonation etc. There are more factors too but this is enough to make the point. Having an overall understanding of presentation ability might overlook critical skillset factors that are missing or below par. Opportunities to add value or gaps that cost it. Having the view 'I am a good presenter' may be less than true when investigating the individual skills that make up presentational ability.

What I do, is work with them to identify gaps and work with them to fill them. Of course, I can't improve for my clients, they must do the hard work. So together, we investigate, question and develop the understanding necessary to close the gaps. I don't have every skill (or the ability to train) every skill necessary but we again work to create the proactivity to find a solution.

As said, there is also a range of importance for skillsets. It is too easy at times to invest where already comfortable when the real gains can be made in the uncomfortable and difficult to obtain. Often, a little investment in a difficult place will have a lot more positive effect than a lot of investment in an easy one. Again, as you can imagine, I'm super popular in Finland. A place where people literally hold their breath so as not to draw attention to themselves on an elevator yet, curiously enough, are quite happy to get naked at just about any opportunity, appropriate or not.

As they develop, they gain more tools in their toolbox to use in their daily work operations and also as they grow, they role model new skills and attitudes for other colleagues. This has been a successful approach to both developing personnel across an organisation and having them as people enjoy life, work and learning more.

I really love what I do and will probably never make a huge amount of money doing it, but I do feel that it is having a positive effect on the people I cooperate with, their companies and whatever tiny effect it pushes into the world. Even though I work at a micro level, each movement has a knock on effect so the big picture can be a little brighter. This can work in the positive and the negative of course but ignoring the process is potentially opening it up to increased risks.

This was a very simple overview of what I do, but hopefully it gives you a bit of a better understanding of my perspectives and approach to life and why I write some of the things I do.

Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]