The secret of good craftsmanship

In addition to excellent products and services, the quality of an organisation is determined by the people who work there. The right mix of knowledge and experience is the basis for success. Often the priority is to develop and sell (new) products and services. The difference can then be made by ensuring that employees’ knowledge and experience is kept up to date.

By craftsmanship, I mean that your roles and responsibilities in the work are clear and that you know how to do your job. You take the time to develop yourself and discuss with colleagues what the right mix of knowledge and experience is. In this way, you are optimally able to respond to the changes in the market.

How do you work on your craftsmanship?

Do you recognise yourself in any of these examples?

“My greatest wish was always to start my own flower business and for a couple of years I succeeded. It went well from the start. Apart from single flowers and plants, I make fresh bouquets every day, in different price categories. Customers keep coming back and say that they always succeed in my shop. Lately, however, things have slowed down a little.

I found out that there were two reasons for this: people can order bouquets online, which consist of many different individual flowers; and a shop opened in the neighbourhood that also makes bouquets to be composed by the customer. A completely different way of arranging flowers than I was used to. I followed a short course, which inspired me to renew my own style. Since then, my customers have been able to find me again.”

“I work in the mortgage department of a bank. We have clear job and task descriptions for our work. Usually you only look at them when you apply for a job and during performance reviews. As a team, we have listed all the work we have to do and decided together what we should be able to do, what skills are required and what specialisations we can divide up. Everyone has determined his or her own level of knowledge and skills.

We discussed and adapted this with each other. We quickly saw what we were already very good at and in which areas we needed to develop. We linked people together to exchange knowledge and experience and made proposals for training and education. Everyone has developed much faster over the past year and the mutual atmosphere is excellent.”

“I work in the HR department of a large company, where temporary employees are regularly needed for logistics work. The turnover is high, so there is a continuous flow of new employees. It took up to two weeks before the new people could actually start work. Far too long, so temporary employment agencies put their people to work elsewhere. There are many departments involved that have to do something before people can start working. Getting access to the necessary systems, for example, took far too long. Everyone had a clear role and responsibility for their own part, including me, but it didn’t fit together.

I then took the initiative, together with all those involved, to develop an approach that would ensure that new people could get to work after one day with everything they needed. Surprisingly, it only took a few small adjustments by everyone, with a great result.”

 

Do you know the added value of your craftsmanship?

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