Pathfinder (original) (raw)
footpad 😊thoughtful
October 6 2012, 00:05
Yesterday I attended one of these little HR-ish things with a bunch of middle-managers where we get together and bounce around ideas for how to improve things in the company, and gather into little groups to discuss and organise stuff under the beady eyes of managers who're watching how we interact. It's a performance art, really, and it culminates in a "presentation" where somebody rears up on their hind legs and shows off all the ideas we've come up with.
I had fun.
This morning one of them stopped by me as I was cleaning the coffee machine. (I don't use the coffee machine, but somebody's got to keep the damn thing from disappearing behind its own crusts of mouldering coffee-grounds and spilled sugar.) "That was a good presentation you gave yesterday," he said. "I think you missed your vocation. You should have been a trainer or a facilitator."
I was pleased by the 'trainer' bit, but 'facilitator' sounded a bit wimpy. Then I went and looked it up and I was even more pleased by that. It sounded right.
I'm a good computer geek, and for many years I thought I didn't really have any knack for "soft skills" at all. But it's turning out that, by both inclination and capability, there are some things I'm actually pretty good at.
These days I'm fairly frequently told I have a talent for teaching technical concepts. And that delights me, because it's something I love doing. There's something gentle about it, something serene and literally selfless: it puts me into a flow state where I forget everything but the pupil and the learning process they're in—when they need explanation, when they need a question to draw the threads of understanding together, when they just need silence to let their thoughts crystallise into meaning. I always knew I was born to be a geek, but now I'm learning that maybe I was meant to grow up to be a teacher of geeks.
Facilitator, though; that's a new one. That's another idea I find myself in love with, and for very similar reasons. A facilitator is someone who immerses themselves in a contentious discussion, with no agenda but to help all parties towards agreement. Again, it has these qualities of selflessness, empathy and compassion, which I find myself intensely drawn to, and which are indescribably fulfilling when I get the chance to express them.
Wow. I mean, let's not go overboard here—I remain as tactless, flawed and selfish as I ever was. I ain't going Buddha on y'all. But, however modest it may be, this teacher/facilitator/guide aspect is new and wonderful to me. It's like a door has opened onto a fresh and lovely vista of my own personality. That's a rare experience in life, and one to be treasured and nurtured.
Above all, it develops into the most fascinating and beautiful involvement with the heart of the wolf within.