Today I learned:
1. Competence: The other day I took part in a leadership training seminar where we discussed the concept of competance. The facilitator showed a great video clip of a labourer carrying bricks off a boat:
This man is clearly good at his job, and he has spent whatever time was required to develop a true competence in the task at hand.
Reflecting back on the discussion today, this clip raises two questions:
a. Will his employer (apparently in Bangladesh) pay for the treatment of his future neck and/or back injuries?
b. How do you help your team members achieve this level of competence – or mastery really – in their jobs?
The second question is tougher.
The basic method proposed in my session was to “show them what to do, how to do it ,and why.”
No question it is good, clear advice. But a video like this suggests to me that is really part of step two in this problem. From my perspective the video tells as much a story about hiring practice as it does about competence and eventually mastery. I do believe there is some form of greatness or calling in everyone, but I don’t believe everyone is suited to do anything. To me this video is more about Jim Collin’s famous statement that you need to “get the right people on the bus,” or in this case the boat. Not every person is going to balance 20 bricks on their head. Most are going to fail miserably at this task. To me this is more a lesson in finding and then nurturing the development of the right people, than it is about taking who you have and helping them master the task at hand.
Am I right or have I had one too many bricks fall on my head on this on?
2. Preparation, Take 2: After yesterday’s post on presentation preparation and my perception that people are too often inclined to blame their lack of preparation on a technology fail, today I found myself involved in a 2 hour preparation session with representatives from my company and one of our vendors aimed at planning a series of three webinars for a customer group. Two hours, about 10 people online, bouncing ideas and working on a very rough run through. We had technology problems, poor narative, and incomplete explanations. At the start we weren’t on the same page with the message and we had differing views on the key issues to address. It was generally a weak product.
Is this a problem?
Nope.
It was the first of 3 sessions, over which I expect we will iterate the presentation to a final product that I am sure will be polished and, most importantly, valuable to the customer. It certainly feels good to have a take away from personal involvement in a good process, just one day after learning a similar lesson while observing a bad one.
two things i learned today 