Content:
We need to learn faster.
#In 2018, Tesla went through its “production hell” to become ready for the mass market.
In the rest of the industry, plans were drawn up and tested in response. New products, factories and sales channels were created.
The plans are ready and are being implemented.
To achieve this, many employees need to be trained and retrained. New skills for the future: cell production and chip design, complex software integration, dynamic pricing for online customers and much more.
We will manage that over time.
But we don’t have much time left. Apart from Tesla, new competitors are currently pushing into the car market with good products and a lot of money.
We need to become faster in acquiring new skills “at scale”.
A look at the research on learning acceleration reveals clear principles.
Learning must be relevant, multimedia-based, flexible in terms of time and practically applicable.
Let’s start with the learning acceleration at “relevant”.
Any learning that is not in line with personal goals is hindered.
The automotive industry has been extremely successful in recent decades. And so have its employees. Now many are realizing that their skills and experience will no longer be enough to be successful in the future. Accustomed to good and reliable incomes, many are asking themselves what they can do with their skills and experience.
Use existing skills instead of learning new ones
The easiest thing to do, of course, is to use your existing specialist skills in a new context. In other words, with a new employer.
But the core competencies are usually context-specific. We master the processes at Volkswagen, BMW or Continental and contribute to them.
This procedural contextual knowledge is often not easily transferable and has to be newly acquired. However, you only realize this when you have changed employers – you can easily read about this in some LinkedIn profiles.
Acquiring a core skill takes time.
It takes 10,000 hours to really be able to do something.
In his book “The High Flyer”, Canadian non-fiction author Malcom Gladwell made the observation that anyone who has mastered a skill has practiced it for around 10,000 hours. This is just as true for a professional tennis player or cellist as it is for a programmer, graphic designer, craftsman or teacher. A year has about 2,000 to 2,200 working hours, i.e. it takes about 3 to 5 years to master a specialization.
That sounds very long at first. That’s why only a few become real experts in their field. In my view, there is an important message here: you can reach a level of perfection in any new skill in just 3 to 5 years.
You need the goal, the discipline and the time.
I started writing online in August 2022, specifically writing on Twitter, LinkedIn. In early 2023, I started this newsletter and launched my website AutomotiveLearners.com. According to the 10,000-hour rule, I should have reached a certain level of mastery between 2025 and 2028.
My goal is to build AutomotiveLearners into a seven-figure turnover.
Accelerate learning.
A key component of AutomotiveLearners is learning acceleration.
To this end, we are developing the “Skill to Skill” program.
As a former VW manager, psychologist with a doctorate and management consultant and trainer, I benefit from my industry experience and various transferable skills, such as recruiting, team building, sales, concept development, etc.
At the same time, we engage experts such as learning designers, learning technologists and coaching experts to build the program and test it with people from the automotive industry.
The “Skill to Skill” program creates clarity and overcomes resistance.
The clearer and more balanced a goal is, the more likely it is to be achieved.
Once internal and external resistance has been recognized and overcome, the available skills and energy are sufficient to achieve the goals.
It’s the same with cars. If the drive is optimized, you have to improve weight, friction and aerodynamics in order to become faster. You can only reach higher speeds if the resistance is reduced.
This formula for success is as simple as it is universal.
Unclear, unbalanced goals are the biggest obstacle.
Many of us have goals: I want to have this job, I want to earn that money, I want to travel there, I want to learn that, I want to reach a specific weight. And we have learned that if we are focused and disciplined enough, we can achieve any goal.
That is partly true. Over time, we can achieve extremely ambitious goals.
That’s why I developed the Skill2Skill program.
Life is not a sport. It is by no means the case that if your career is successful, your family will also be a success. Or that your health is excellent.
Life is multidimensional. It consists of several, sometimes conflicting goals.
But not particularly complicated.
Five target dimensions are sufficient for balancing:
- Profession: How do we create value for others, receive recognition and our income? What are our skills, how relevant are they on the market, and are we learning enough, are we gaining relevant experience?
- Family and friends: How are those who are around us and shape us? Are we spending enough time together? Where will they be in the next 10 years? Are they getting enough attention and support for their lives?
- Lifestyle: Where do we live and how? Do we live in a house or an apartment, do we rent or let? Does our living space offer enough stimulation and opportunity for passions and hobbies? What role do trips play – are they escapes or stimuli?
- Finances: How do we earn our money? Is financing our lifestyle the main reason for our work, or are we partly independent? Do we have a second source of income? Do we have investments that generate money?
- Health: Are we happy, are we healthy? How long do we think we will live? Are we getting our daily dose of exercise, daylight, healthy food, social contact and sufficient sleep? Do we know our health problems and do we have a plan to work on them?
It is not enough to have explicit goals for one or two of these dimensions. You need all of them. They can sometimes contradict each other. But they need to be clarified and reconciled.
A lack of clarity is reflected in an overemphasis on one target dimension.
The five dimensions are laid against each other like a bundle of branches: They can stretch upwards if they are balanced, of equal length and of equal importance. If one goal falls short, the whole bundle falls over. You can still have the best finances, the best health or the most outstanding career – at some point you will find that the whole bundle falls to the ground.
However, if the goals are clear and balanced, this is a considerable acceleration in growth, learning and personal development.
What does all this have to do with the professional acquisition of skills?
Any learning program chosen to achieve balanced goals will be between 30 and 90 % more efficient and successful. There is also evidence of this from research.
“Skill to skill” can accelerate learning through greater clarity and the reduction of resistance.
