A very interesting day

Over the last 15 years I've been working in Learning & Development both as internal and as consultant/trainer. The most interesting moments were those moments when I was in close contact with operational business. Through these interactions I got a better understanding of business, of challenges, of daily life, instead of staying in an office somewhere far far away from the action, like many of my colleagues.

This attitude helped me to grow faster and get connected to people in operational activities and allign learning paths better with their goals.

Through this, I worked in factories, drove straddle carriers to pick up containers, ... and learned to speak the language of the business.

Recently I had a very interesting day with one of my customers. Since a few months I've been working on a project in the surgery department of a hospital in Belgium. They asked me to help them improve the communication and interaction in their surgery department. I loved this challenge, because I am very interested in the interaction between nurses, surgeons and anesthetists. Last week they gave me the opportunity to join them for a day and observe the interactions during surgery. I attended a hip surgery, a few eye surgeries and a stomach removal (and I didn't faint :-) ). Despite the fact that I started really early in the morning (5.30), I was full of energy in the evening. Why ? I learned a lot, felt gratitude because I was interested in what they were doing, ... These moments are priceless.

My advise to you...
If you are working in a supportive function (IT, HR, Communications, ...) or you are working as a consultant, try to work with operational departments for a while. Invest some time to get to know them better. This will help you in the short run to get a better understanding of the organization you're working in and will give you more credibility.

Invest time in getting to know your customer. It is a great investment of time.