Part 3/3 of our interview series on further education
Most training courses are over after a few hours or days, but my colleague Sarah took part in a training course for a year and a half. She is a DOT manager at AKQUINET tech@spree, a UX specialist and now also a systemic organizational consultant. Here she tells us exactly what that means.
Can you tell me something about the training on systemic organizational consulting from artop?
It is a very comprehensive training, which was important to me. I really wanted to get deep into a topic, to deal with it intensively.
The training lasts one and a half years, in my case we started in the fall of 2021 and have now finished in the spring of 2023. So it’s really very intensive and very long. The structure is that you meet every month for 3 days for the seminar, for 8h, like a normal working day. During the 3 days you work on one module, for example team dynamics, basics of consulting, developing teams and groups, facilitation and workshop design, consulting leadership or understanding organizations. The individual modules build on each other, so you constantly expand your knowledge and can always continue to use everything you had heard and learned before.
There is always some theory input to learn new Stuff, that’s for example how I got to know Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory. Otherwise, it’s a lot of making experiences and trying things out for yourself, for instance in the form of small group exercises, where we consulted each other on real cases. It’s a training for consultants, and you can’t call yourself that if you haven’t spent the whole time somehow consulting and actually practicing the craft.
In addition, each of us had to do a counseling project alongside the training. We always teamed up in pairs and then carried out a consulting project with a real existing client or organization. I chose something very intensive there as well: We spent a year consulting with the fire department in Bochum.
What is systemic organizational consulting?
The special thing about this type of organizational consulting is that you look at the entire system. If, for example, a manager is not doing so well, then the consulting and support of this particular person is only a very small part of the big picture.
In most cases, it is useless to do something only concerning a single aspect, instead you have to depersonalize and look for the connections.
What patterns are present in this organization, why can’t the manager fulfill his or her tasks? Perhaps there are reasons why the person cannot lead, does not have the possibilities to do so. They can lie for example in structures, expectations and definitions of tasks and roles.
What did you particularly like about it?
I think the easier question would be what I didn’t like, because I really couldn’t think of that many things. I thought the structure was good, I thought it made sense how the modules built on each other. I thought the group was great. Maybe you can be lucky or unlucky, but in my case there was a really nice atmosphere in this training group of about 15 people, a really nice sense of togetherness. There was a lot of mutual enrichment, because there was also a lot of discussion. Of course, this also requires a certain basis of trust, because you bring in your own cases and advise each other.
I always looked forward to the weeks when I could go to training. I would always have a short work week and then I could get out of my daily routine, have a break from my daily business. I felt very much that I was doing something for myself here, to develop myself further. I think that I gained a lot from this on a personal level. I was very sad that the training has come to an end now, I would have liked for it to to continue.
How important is further education to you?
Further education is utterly important to me. It’s one of the most important aspects for me in the work context to continue my education and to do and find things that suit you. That has two aspects: On the one hand, of course, professional development, so that I simply become better at what I do and open up and develop new opportunities and fields. On the other hand, there is always a personal aspect, because you also do further education for yourself, which I find very important. I think it’s good that I can do such extensive training as systemic organizational consulting and that I also get support from the company. For example, I was given some time off because it was very, very labor-intensive. So the company paid for the training and then I also got a little time off, in addition to the training days that you have anyway.
I just think it’s important to keep developing. I think that’s what you need as a person, to always find new, horizon-expanding opportunities.
You don’t want to be stuck at some point, but always want to see what else is out there. How could I still solve things? What else could I possibly do? What other possibilities do I have? And that’s where continuing education helps.
Like this? Feel free to check out the other parts of our interview series:
The keys to succesful training with Andrea (1/3)
JavaLand Insights with Thieu and Frank (2/3)