Posts Tagged ‘puzzles’

Since I was a little kid, I have always enjoyed putting puzzles together.  I liked getting the corner pieces and edges in place and looking back and forth at the picture of the complete puzzle to check my work.  It was very rewarding to have to sort through all of the available pieces and find just the right one that fit in just the right place.  As a family, I fondly remember time spent putting puzzles together and enjoying time to visit.  It was also nice to work the puzzle with other people so that I had help when I got stuck. 
 
In the training class I taught today, I enjoyed working on what I call a “trainer puzzle”. It reminded me of all the puzzles that I had put together over the years.    In today’s class, we were designing PivotTables in Excel.  One of the students wanted to streamline the process and customize her PivotTable.  The constraints and conditions she had on her data created a situation that neither I nor any of the students had ever dealt with before. 
 
Almost all of the students in class (they were all from the same department in the same company) had encountered the problem too.  So, we took some time to brainstorm and try different options to see what might work.  We had a good time puzzling through the different Excel features we knew and finally hit on a great solution.  None of us could have figured it out by ourselves, but together we finished that trainer puzzle successfully.
 
Intentionally or unintentionally, puzzles help us develop our skills in whatever application or life challenge we dare to endeavor.  We may complete a puzzle with more gray hair and with a few more wrinkles, but we have learned and improved ourselves.
 
In the training environment a puzzle can be a unique opportunity for the growth and development of employees.  Puzzles foster the growth of a business by the opportunities that individuals within a firm take to develop their skills in that particular area.  In turn those skilled individuals give that business a unique edge.  The employees also develop skills that are beneficial for their career advancement.
 
Training is just one important area in which puzzles in business can be solved or brought to light to the advancement of everyone around.