Learning Your Craft: Getting Great at What You Do Makes Innovation Easy

Legendary actor and director Robert Redford often calls for fellow actors to “learn their craft”—to be so great at the fundamentals that you have the confidence, security, and flexibility to pursue your passion.

Early in his career, Redford took on whatever roles he could to learn his craft and eventually earned the lead role in many of his films. Those experiences gave him the knowledge and ability to share forward as a film director to those new to the industry. For consultants, the message is clear: learning the skills of project management, technology innovation, or design thinking leads to mastery of the consulting craft, and meaningful impacts on the mission.

“The life is so short; the craft so long to learn” was Chaucer’s way of summing up craft. Mastery is more than treating your career as just a job and tasks. Rather, the skills you learn and use along the way build your confidence and fuel your creativity for solutions to any challenge. These can include:

• Developing proficiency in routine operational tasks and winning the trust of the client to manage priority projects
• Knowing the software, best practices, and the client’s mission to build up your skill set
• Using mistakes made early in your career as opportunities to train new joiners to a project
• Keeping on top of trends in the industry, disrupting old habits, and learning from how others approach the same problem to add to your knowledge base and mastery of the consulting craft

For example, emergency managers practice these skills by way of training and exercising for the capabilities they need for a timely and efficient response to any disaster. Project managers bring the lessons of learning their craft, from their first days as a new consultant working on tasks, to leading new projects. They earn certifications that show their mastery and share their knowledge across the team. 

Arc Aspicio is a career company in that our people can grow in their project, build up their skills through our proven accelerators and methods, and take the consulting craft into new opportunities. Developing these fundamentals makes innovation possible. Our senior consultants are often specialists who demonstrate the craft to our new joiners, by teaching important lessons every step of the way. Our people thrive by mastering consulting skills and the nuances of the Homeland Security mission.

About Arc Aspicio
Arc Aspicio is a management, strategy, and technology consulting firm that takes a mission-oriented approach to complex client challenges. Focused on innovation, Arc Aspicio provides services in strategy, design, human capital, operations, analytics and visualization, technology, and information sharing. The company is known for a strong, collaborative culture that values gratitude, provides leadership opportunities, and explores the future. Our teams use a human-centered approach to working with clients and are flexible and responsive within dynamic Government client environments that often have new priorities and evolving missions. We thrive on these situations and promote continuous improvement and new ideas. And, #welovedogs! Follow us on Twitter @arcaspicio or learn more at www.arcaspicio.com.