[ interview "we are the competent people" ] Amir Elion

The next interview in the series is with Amir Elion. He has written a book before on 100 creative presentation ideas, and works at learning company Kineo - the company that recently put Totara on the market, a 'Moodle for the corporate world'. How does Amir select, develop and grow his competences? Let's find out...

Bert: Can you tell us a bit more on your background?

Amir: I have been in the education and learning profession for about 15 years now. The journey began with a unique program to teach school children cognitive, social and personal skills through board games. Later I moved to adult and workplace learning. I worked at ZOOZ - a Strategy, Innovation, Marketing and Management consulting and training firm. For the past 5 years I changed perspective by working inside two large international corporations - Teva Pharmaceuticals, and Motorola - in Learning and Development management roles. Now I am about to switch again to the consultant side by joining Kineo Israel - as Director of Learning Solutions. I have also been involved in some innovative activities of the Annual Israeli Learning Conference - including a Pecha Kucha session in 2009, an Unconference track in 2010 and the Learning Solutions Bar and social media tools in 2011. A few years ago I wrote the book "100 Creative Presentation Ideas", that can be found (with some more content) on www.best100ideas.com. I also write a learning and innovation blog called Perpetuum Mobile - but it's mostly in Hebrew.

Bert: At what competence domain(s) would you consider yourself ‘competent’?

Amir: I think I am competent in some general domains and in other, more specific, domains.
The former would include the competence to learn and apply new knowledge and skills. Understandably, I consider this a very critical ability to my development and success, and constantly drive myself to utilize and improve this fundamental competence.
A more specific competence domain revolves around Innovation. I had good opportunities to learn, use and assist individuals and organizations in a variety of innovation efforts, methodologies and tools. I think my competence in this field goes hand-in-hand with my infinite enthusiasm for it.
Obviously I should mention my professional vocation of learning and development, although we sometimes tend to take our professional competencies for granted.

Bert: Describe moment(s) where you grew the most in a particular competence domain

Amir: I think this happens strongly especially when I have to do a project which requires that competence or when I need to teach and facilitate others on a topic or competence field. For instance, I have lead the building of an online learning portal at Motorola. Through this project I became highly familiar and competent with the (Moodle) platform we used. When I think of it - in such a learning opportunity I don't develop just one competence domain, but a set of context-related abilities. In the project I mentioned I also developed my competencies in organizational change management, online and social learning,  and others.
When I need to teach others I feel I must be very well prepared. It also makes me try to understand and define the essence of the domain I am trying to impart. This requires further learning and exploration on my part. Through the need to adapt the knowledge and skills domain to the specific needs of the people and groups I work with, and through their questions - I become more competent myself. This has happened to me time and time again whenever I had to facilitate an innovation workshop or process, or workshops on other topics.

Bert: How do you recognize competent people?

Amir: This is an interesting question. In organizational learning we often refer to SME - subject matter experts - as people whose knowledge and skills we should harness to promote the learning and distribution of best practices. I have met a number of such experts in various fields, and I am not sure they can all be "recognized" in a similar manner. I think competency is an elusive concept, which is strongly influenced by context. Perhaps a reasonable definition I can think of is that a competent person is one that is able to leverage knowledge, skills and insights in a specific context in order to drive towards meaningful and significant results. If a person is able to demonstrate such an ability repeatedly, I would consider them competent.

Bert: Do you see yourself doing something completely different five or ten years from now?

Amir: I believe I have a strong influence on the paths ahead of me. I have deliberately chosen a specific development direction in past years, and it has taken me in the general direction I wanted. Naturally, there were and will be many surprises and junctions along the way. Personally, I have two potentially conflicting forces or tendencies that drive me. On the one hand, I constantly seek new challenges and development opportunities. On the other hand, I do appreciate and strive for long-term and meaningful projects and influence. It is difficult to satisfy both these tendencies on one job. One way I deal with this is to seek challenges not only at my main place of work, but on other grounds as well, such as being an active member of the professional learning community. I do hope that the current opportunity at Kineo Israel will allow me to achieve both. Being on the consultant and solutions provider side presents numerous challenges, yet may also allow for noteworthy projects with deeper action.

Bert: How long did it take you to become good?

Amir: This really depends on the nature of the domain, and on previous experience that might help me become good at it. For instance, when I want to become good in a new innovation methodology today - it does not take make too long. However, when I started a completely different endeavor in the world of Capoeira, it took me quite a number of years before I could say I was moderately good.

Bert: Are you involved in any ‘sharing’ activities? Do you think sharing helps you grow? Did you experience people taking advantage of the things you shared?

Amir: Sharing is an important growth engine for me. It helps me take my understanding further. It also amplifies my relations and allows me to learn from the experiences of others. I deliberately nurture my sharing opportunities and go to professional meetings and events. I also try to make use of the powerful and new sharing channels opened up by the Internet and social networks - although I sometime find myself frustrated as I feel there is so much more to learn from sharing and from the sharing of others - and I simply cannot cover it all.
I think the the concept of "taking advantage" of things shared is inappropriate for our times, and is also opposite to the whole point of learning. On the contrary - when people take what I have done and use it - I consider it to be a success. After all - this is what I am supposed to do as a learning professional. I truly believe ego has no place in a thriving learning environment. Moreover - I actually think it builds my own position and reputation in the long run.