
I recently bumped into a former fellow student while visiting a client. Fifteen years ago, we took lectures together, and now we were facing each other at the meeting table, she for L&D and I as a learning specialist for TinQwise.
It was a mirror image, and on the other hand it was not. It made me realise how the same studies and interests can lead you to different places.
Both of us were educationalists, and from this role we both want to develop effective learning solutions that really help people develop and grow. But were there any other similarities between the two of us? Do we understand each other’s worlds well, from opposing ends of the table?
‘If we learn to understand each other, we will have a better understanding of ourselves.’ – Sarah Gadon.
The longer I thought about this, the more questions came up. What exactly does my counterpart do at L&D? What does the target group ask of them? What does the business ask of them? What is their role in the organisation? What are they struggling with? What themes matter to them? What are their needs? What opportunities do they see? What does this mean to my work?