Text: Renske van der Heide

Photography: Robin Kuijs

COLUMN

RENSKE VAN DER HEIDE

is a product manager at TOPdesk and chairwoman of the FMN (Facility Management Netherlands) Young Professionals network.

LEARNING TO RIDE A BIKE

Our previous columnist, Annemarie, has left the company and I will be taking over her column. Annemarie had quite some experience with columns. I, on the other hand, have a little less. It seemed like a good idea to have a chat with Annemarie over a glass of wine. She had plenty of useful tips: take your time when writing, dont wait until the last moment, pick a topic that is close to your heart and so on.

iscussing columns with an old friend while enjoying a glass of wine is a pleasant way to share

What are your strengths? How do you handle particular situations? These things determine the way you approach a task, and vary from person to person. Theres really nothing wrong with that.

done, shadowing someone from your own or another department, attending meetings or visiting customers. Finally, you also learn a lot by exchanging tips with others, just as Annemarie and I did.

knowledge. But how do you approach sharing knowledge about more complex issues with someone you dont know very well? If, for example, someone from your department is replaced, how do you ensure that the replacement acquires all the knowledge that they need? It is fairly easy to record what must be done in task descriptions, work instructions or written procedures. These descriptions may even be quite complex and extensive, such as the many protocols describing the tasks of a medical specialist or nurse. In short, it is possible. How someone does something, however, is much more difcult to record. It depends on personal experience, competence and personality. How experienced are you?

YOU DONT LEARN TO RIDE A BIKE BY READING A BOOK ABOUT IT; INSTEAD YOU FALL OVER AND PICK YOURSELF UP AGAIN

Trial and error often proves to be a good way to discover which methods suit you best. After all, you dont learn to ride a bike by reading a book about it; you do it by falling down and picking yourself up again. At work you learn in all sorts of ways; by observing how your colleagues get things

Come to think of it, its high time that Annemarie and I had another glass of wine together. I could still use a few tips, and I only made the deadline for this column by the skin of my teeth.