Imagine you’re working on two automotive parts projects.
On one, you’ve got a critical technical issue that must be solved before shipping it for the OEM vehicle build the next day.
On the other, for a different customer, you have a meeting to finalise the agreement before they sign the purchase order for the next phase.
You only have time to do one… and no colleagues are available to support.
Do you dive into the technical problem with full focus to understand and fix it?
Or do you join the customer meeting to ensure the project is signed off?
I would sometimes ask this scenario to engineers we were recruiting into our engineering teams. Of course, there isn’t a right or wrong answer — but the questions they asked and the choice they made were interesting. It helped reveal whether they naturally leaned towards the product side of the business, or the service side.
When I was younger and I was asked this question, I said I would definitely do both…. Even if it took all night to get the project signed off and fix the technical problem.
Today, I realise I have a stronger inclination for the service and relationship-building side of business. I transitioned in L&D from R&D for a reason…
At ici2learn, our work is very much a networking and service-based business, while also designing and delivering customised learning journeys to support the development of leaders and teams.
With the Skillful Collaboration concept, we now offer something that is more of a product — our Team Assessment.
This ‘product’ can be purchased and used by trainers, coaches, team coaches, and facilitators with their clients. HR and L&D teams inside organisations can also use it internally, with company trainers running the debrief sessions.
Additionally, we offer a service: Team Debrief sessions and the Team Masterclass Learning Journey, designed to build the human skills of collaboration. We can deliver this ourselves, and we run a Train-the-Trainer programme for organisations that want to build internal capability.
So with Skillful Collaboration, we see it clearly as both a Product (the Team Assessment) and a Service (the Masterclass Learning Journey and Train-the-Trainer).
Looking back in my engineering days, I loved both: the technical product problem-solving, and the service side of partnering with customers, suppliers and cross-functional colleagues.
Those were the years when I experienced true team collaboration, and I bring that experience into both our products and our services today.
If you’re interested in our product, here is a free link to the assessment.
And if you’re interested in our service…
👉 Let’s connect!
