TRAINING
Inspire individuals to ‘discover their possibilities’
Becky Hill, an applied biology and microbiology research scientist who ‘transitioned into the corporate world’ – developing her knowledge skills and expertise in water treatment and purification – before founding performance improvement and strategic advisor company, Solutions 42, outlines her ‘holistic approach and measurable solutions to learning and development interventions in healthcare’.
My first thought on joining the world of water purification was ‘that sounds boring’ So, you may instantly be thinking, ‘Why take the job then?’ My reasoning was simple; I wanted to learn about the process of selling, and this new job connected the academic world of a research laboratory that I was leaving behind with my desire to learn all about business. When I started, my training was focused on getting to know the products, the technology behind the products, and the different qualities these technologies achieved. I began making connections between my laboratory work and the water I had used. When I started making field visits, I went back to my old laboratory site, and asked the engineers who looked after the building if I could see the water purification system. This is the point when I realised that the plant room really is the pumping heart of a building. I also recognised the value of the technical knowledge of water in the context of the work experience I’d already had, and found the impact of different water qualities on various applications fascinating.
A raging hunger to know My initial ‘that sounds boring’ reaction to the subject soon turned into a raging hunger to know and understand more. I made meaning and connections of technical and engineering aspects, with the multitude of applications. I discovered an enormously wide range of markets and industries, each with their own set of legislation, standards, regulations, and guidance for best practices – each requiring human beings with different job roles, pools of knowledge, skills, and expertise, to come together and collaborate in achieving the desired water specifications. So, how could I get people to not see water treatment and purification as boring? What could I do to engage people’s curiosity? How could I break down the invisible barriers to sharing and learning caused by assumptions?
How many times do we unintentionally
‘‘
The definition of ‘intervention’ in the Cambridge English Dictionary is ‘an action taken to intentionally become involved in a difficult situation in order to improve it or prevent it from getting worse’
block our curiosity by making assumptions? What opportunities do we miss when we have fixed beliefs? For example, the belief that a ‘degree’ means the individual concerned is more intelligent than another without it. That a job title defines the individual and their characteristics. That infection prevention and control is for people in caring roles, rather than of any great interest to the estates and facilities personnel looking after the hospital environment. Or, perhaps, that water quality assurance is an engineering, rather than a clinical issue?
Time, values, and life experience We don’t mean to assume; it’s actually in our nature to be curious, but to what extent depends on our perception of time, our current values, and our life experiences. Time is the real currency of discovery, and it takes time to become excellent in whatever we chose to focus
on. In my sales role I found out that the subject of ‘water purification’ didn’t interest most people, unless I caught them at a time when the water quality had been identified as the cause of a non- compliance, production problem, or product quality issue. I soon realised that there was a gap between engineers who spoke and saw in engineering terms, and end-users, whose questions were scientific – two different languages, where I became the interpreter and educator. I needed to work out how I could help that communication in the future...
Challenges despite training investment
According to the Employer Skills Survey 2017,1
a total of £44.2 bn was spent on training in the UK that year, with the average training days per employee being four, at an annual cost per employee of £1,500. With this sort of investment, it’s
October 2019 Health Estate Journal 65
©nd3000/
stock.adobe.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160