A short recap on the T-shaped profile.

The T-shape refers to the visual representation of the skill set of a person. The vertical part of the T refers to the expertise acquired in a certain field. In other words, this is the set of skills in which you excel. The horizontal part of the T refers to the knowledge and skills outside of your own expertise. Profiles combining both horizontal and vertical skills are considered as T-shaped profiles or generalizing specialists.

Most of us are still evolving from an I-shaped or dash-shaped profile towards a T-shaped profile. Tough some already predict the need for pi-shaped, E-shaped and even hashtag-shaped profiles, having deep expertise in multiple fields.  :)

Why cross-functional teams need T-shaped profiles?

If each of the needed specializations is represented in a team, the team can be considered as a cross-functional team. Each team member takes up the work related to this specialization.  This works as long as the overall workload, the type of work and the team composition are a constant. Unfortunately change is the constant, thus most likely none of these three factors remain stable over time. That is the exact reason why a cross-functional team needs T-shaped profiles. In a team of generalizing specialists, where every team member is equally responsible for the end result, there is no individual workload. T-shaped profiles take up tasks outside of their expertise and make themselves useful where they are needed the most. A team of T-shaped profiles thrives, even in fast changing environments.

Why cross-functional teams create T-shaped profiles?

Where working in a cross-functional team requires team members to be T-shaped, it also makes them more T-shaped. In the ideal cross  functional team everyone is equally committed to reach the agreed upon end result.  This results in team members taking up tasks outside of their specialization when a colleague is in need of help or absent. When teams mature they weapon themselves against changes in workload, changes in type of work and changes in team composition, to deliver the agreed upon result. This results in; team members working in pairs on certain tasks, documenting important processes, having whiteboard sessions involving the entire team,…  All of these self emerging behaviors result in knowledge and expertise being shared withing the team.  As a result, creating cross functional teams where everyone is equally committed, results in team member becoming more T-shaped.

Join a cross-functional team and become more T-shaped!

When we train people, we bring our expertise on a specific subject to the table. What’s more, our expertise is exactly the reason why we were invited to give a training in the first place. And yet, at the same time, our expertise could also be standing in the way of effective knowledge transfer.

Knowledge transfer is often hampered by trying to be 100 per cent truthful, and by trying to introduce the whole picture at too early a stage.

But we are the experts. The one thing we want to avoid, is to teach things that aren’t truthful, right?

So we tell our story, nuance it, bring in different points of view, go over the exceptions… In short, we showcase the expertise we’ve accumulated over all these years. We’re not only not telling lies, we’re also demonstrating our mastery of the full picture and, as a consequence, integrate that full picture in our training. We explain the history of our topic, move on to the context, and drill down to the details.

But being 100 per cent truthful and explaining the full picture from the very start paves the way for complexity, and lots of it.

It’s OK to lie or to leave out parts of the story

At least for now! If we try to be completely truthful, we need to start off our training with introducing a new language and new concepts, which in turn also need further explaining, using more new concepts and so on… You see where I’m going.

Many training’s I’ve attended or given, started off with this statement: “Before we delve into <insert main topic of training here> we need to tackle a few other things…” And we start wandering around explaining a variety of concepts related to the main subject in one way or another.

I strongly believe it’s much better to oversimplify and leave out the details. Even if that means our message is no longer fully truthful or thorough. Taking a step back from 100 per cent correctness and completeness often results in better learning.

An example: When we learn how to drive a car, we begin with the main controls (steering wheel, pedals, gear stick, …) and just start driving. We also get to know the dashboard, learn that a blinking warning light means trouble, and that we should immediately stop the car and check. Of course, that’s not 100 per cent correct. There are many warning lights that don’t require you to stop the car immediately.  But explaining all the possible warning lights and appropriate reactions would lead us too far away from the focus of the day, which is learning how to drive.

Training in iterations

After we introduce an oversimplified concept, we move on and introduce other topics in a simplified way. When having tackled these, we can revisit the first topics and build on the already acquired knowledge. This is the point we start to nuance, bring in exceptions and introduce complexity.

Another benefit of training in such an iterative way, is that you can point out relationships between various topics. You can choose to omit topics from your story until trainees have a good enough grasp of the bigger context.

An example: In the first iteration, we learned a car has warning lights and that when they blink, we need to stop immediately. In a later stage we learn about different categories of urgency (red versus orange) that require different actions. But when we do learn about the washer fluid symbol, for example, we also need to learn how to open the hood and how to refill. 

Training put to practice

Slicing up your training into smaller parts and building on what you’ve already tackled, is not rocket science. I’m sure many of you already do this to ensure the focus is on knowledge transfer.

In addition to slicing up my trainings, I also practice the following techniques:

Visualize the roadmap of your training

Having a visual representation of your roadmap allows everyone to easily situate each topic of your training. Before introducing a new topic, I use the roadmap to frame which path we’ve already walked and what is still to come.

Tell people what they should retain

If you tell people upfront which key parts you really want them to remember, they will start paying more attention the moment you start tackling one of these topics.

Rinse and repeat

Repetition results in retention. This goes hand in hand with the slicing. Although repeating oneself might seem less interesting for the trainer, it certainly helps to communicate the structure of the training to the trainees.

Enjoy learning and training!

Before I joined a company where continuous learning is a common practice, I was not aware of all the benefits and the joy that learning could offer. Nowadays I can’t get enough of learning. When sharing with others how enriching this experience is to me, I regularly get responses along the following lines:

“This only applies for people working in technology; in my environment there is no need for continuous learning.”

“It’s cool you can find the time for it, but I don’t have time to learn.”

“This is typically something for workaholics who can’t stop working, even if their workday has finished.”

In general these reactions show me that learning is often seen as a task or a burden. If you are suffering from this feeling, you are doing it wrong!

Continuous learning should be fun

It’s not only about the right tooling and high quality channels, but these can make a difference and result in learning being fun! In the following section I’ll not convince you how to motivate yourself and become a continuous learner. Instead, I’ll point you the different tools and channels which I use and turned learning into a fun activity for myself.

The book

Pretty old school, but still an important part of my learning input is found in physical books. When reading in the evening or on holiday, my preference goes to the hard copy of a book. In addition having a hard copy, brings you the joy of being able to lend a book, or to review it from time to time.

The e-book

I do make use of e-books, however as stated earlier, I still prefer the physical book. However, when you need a book and you need it quickly, e-books are definitely a good choice.  In addition e-books provide you with your dose of learning at a low-cost.

The audio-book

Listening is the new reading, and it makes commuting more meaningful. After experimenting with some free apps and free audio-books, I decided to take a paying subscription to Audible.  Initially I only listened while commuting in my car, but then I started listening to audio-books at home, while queuing in the shop, …. the possibilities are endless. The biggest disadvantage is the lack of possibility to take notes, reread sections or phrases,… which makes audio-books more suitable for the lighter work.

Tip: Ask friends or colleagues for suggestions to great books. Many of the better books I’ve read were referred to me by friends or colleagues.

Online articles

Articles can be consumed in a short time span. I try to cover a few of these every week on a broad variety of topics.  In order to get my weekly feed of online articles I use Medium, which is a platform for social journalism, or Feedly, which is a feed reader collecting all my favorite articles in one place. Both Medium and Feedly have a web version and an app, so no excuses for not having access wherever you are.

Tip: Review and adjust your interests regularly on these apps to avoid tunnel vision.

Dedicated learning apps

I don’t have much experience here with different apps or platforms. I use Duolingo (free) to improve my French and I love it.  Duolingo is a fun language-learning platform incorporating gamification and chatbots.  You can quickly learn a new language  by practicing just a few minutes a day.

The podcast

When I’m on the road and I don’t feel like listening to audio books, I turn to podcasts. Usually podcasts are light, entertaining recordings concentrated around certain topics. I use a standard podcast app and follow a broad variety of podcasts providing me news, tech news, comedy and inspirational talks.

The video

Videos are a great source to deepen your learning on a specific topic. You can find clearly explained information supported by good visuals on almost any subject. The combination of sound and visuals make this medium really good for a deep understanding. A nice example of a good learning series is the DataCamp playlist of R tutorials on Youtube.

In this category you can also find the well-known TED talk videos. For me, these aren’t really focused on learning any particular subject, but they serve more as food for thought.

Evening class

When you are doing all of the above and your craving is still not satisfied, you can take evening classes.  Much like the other channels mentioned, there are evening classes available for almost anything you can imagine.  I use evening classes to immerse myself in topics I have zero to little knowledge on (e.g. a barista course).  Additional benefit for the procrastinators among us is that they are scheduled and thus hard to postpone or skip.

This is certainly not an exhaustive list of all the channels and tooling available. However, the channels and tooling above seem to fulfill my desire to learn and result in learning being fun.

Feel free to share your favorite tool or channel!

2018 is kicking in, so we’re taking the time to look back on the past year and look towards the next one. One of the biggest challenges will be to foster economic growth while we are facing labor shortages.  It seems unlikely that the trend of a growing number in vacancies will change in 2018.

In the past, companies had the luxury of being able to select from the excess labor force on the market. The pain of dealing with scarcity displaces this luxury completely.

Nevertheless, this scarcity triggers creative thinking and opens up opportunities both for companies and employees.

Opportunities for companies and employees

Companies can no longer select the ideal candidate with all the required skills and knowledge from the market. Instead, they will need to attract unexploited talent and further cultivate this talent in house. The opportunity for companies lies in the way they are dealing with this process. In short, companies are providing the springboard to incite unexploited talent.

On the other hand, employees or job seekers feel that companies are no longer looking for the perfect profile, and that they are more than ever willing to invest in development in order to find that diamond in the rough. This feeling motivates people to learn new skills and to reorient themselves. Consequently, people are looking around and are willing to jump.

So, let 2018 be the year where everybody who is willing to jump may find his/her springboard!

The attached example is a made up job vacancy.  Nevertheless, I must say, most real life examples look very close to the example above. Vacancies are often an exhaustive overview of the company’s technology stack including all related tools and frameworks. The candidate matching this technology stack is considered as being talented.

For temporary missions when working with externals, the situation is different. In this case, I completely understand companies need a perfect match between technical expertise and technology used. However, I’m talking about hiring internals for a (hopefully) long-term engagement.

Unfortunately, there is a problem. Our companies change continuously and the technology used changes even faster. Therefore, by the time, the first candidate appears for his/her first interview, the technology stack and corresponding minimal job requirements have already changed.

Start hiring for the future

The war for talent is raging and we are still hiring for the past. Time to start hiring for the future by putting more focus on long-term winning competences: willingness to learn, proven learning capacity and having the mindset to experiment.

These competences will compensate for some of the missing skills and knowledge of the candidates.  Moreover, here is the good news: they will keep paying off in the fast changing technological environment we are living in.