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ill-considered, unacceptable, unfitting or
downright fallacious, can create an impact
that has the power to change our lives
singularly and collectively.
Communication enables knowledge,
skills and insights to be leveraged. This
information can then be applied to each
organisation’s needs in determining their
abilities and point of differentiation from
competitors. Lack of communication puts
organisations at peril of replicating failures
of the past and not slingshotting successes
to even greater successes.
To build creative and productive
manufacturing and building and
construction industries, understanding
‘Design’ and ‘The Design Process’ and
drawing upon the best know-how across
industries and occupations is the path that
brings an idea to the marketplace.
THE SILO MINDSET
cabinetmaker, engineer, designer, metal
fabricator, research scientist, public
relations, a lawyer to protect precious
intellectual property issues, and those with
marketing, advertising, financier, packaging
expertise and so forth.
This opens creativity, likely reduces
production costs, and opens avenues for
exploring other options, maybe not for this
project, but the next one.
It is in drawing upon a diversity of
occupations that problems can be solved
as they arise – saving time, finances,
enhancing quality outcomes, and, therein,
minimising the risk of bringing a failed idea
to the marketplace.
Here relationship building, collaboration
and communication are imperatives that
include professionals and trades alike.
COMMUNICATION
Words are how we share or exchange
information, news, ideas and solve
problems. It’s how we express our views
of each and, in turn, those words, whether
true, inaccurate, unsuitable, ill-judged,
The silo mindset is a constructed way of
thinking. Constructs set the barriers such
as one would prefer to go to university
rather than undertake a TAFE course; one
would rather have a degree rather than a
trade certificate; one would rather be a
professional than a tradesperson.
When we take a forensic look at what
manifests in organisations, in departments,
in occupations, it arises in our cultural
mores and is underpinned by educational
environments from primary school to
universities and technical institutes.
Tradespeople do not seek a university
pathway to bring their talent to its highest
level, but a Master Craft qualification, equal
but different.
It is difficult to cross the chasm, to
respect, to embrace, to harness difference
– to be patient and learn from one another
towards a common goal. However, it
is at the nexus of difference that real
value lies; to see problems/solutions in
a different context, from a different view
point. In this gap lies innovation – practical,
achievable solutions.
THE ECONOMIC BACKBONE
OF OUR NATION
Added to the silo mentality is the skills
gap. People cannot use a nothing. They
cannot use an idea. While the idea remains
in people’s minds, it is just an idea. It takes,
among others, tradespeople to make/
construct, to take the idea to ‘something’
that humans can use. Furthermore, it is
those tradespeople working at the highest
In adding other minds,
other experiences, other
qualifications and different
backgrounds, problems can be
solved together.
level of knowledge and craftsmanship that
make the icons of design, the heirlooms we
treasure and pass on to our children.
An extraordinary life force flows in the
physical and spiritual being, especially
those in the trades when working at the
highest level – the search for exquisite
beauty and the pursuit of excellence. This
is expressed in the passion and desire to
make ‘something’ – the nexus between
creativity and the ‘Capability Trinity’
(skills+knowledge+insights) whether it is the
clothes we wear, in architecture, devices,
to delectable cuisine – they leave their
legacy on all nations and all cultures across
the ages.
As such their ‘something’ enriches each
of us and flows on to our economy and
the society in which we live, work, play and
worship.
But such thinking has been missing
in action. Unfortunately, in Australia we
have decimated the trades – gone is the
‘Master Craft’ level. TAFE trades courses
have gone, as have whole industries. The
impact is that without the trades, ideas may
not come to fruition, or are taken overseas
where our competitors’ advantage from our
ineptitudes and imports abound.
IN CONCLUSION
It can be argued that Australia has more
inventive people per head of population than
other nations, but not the savvy or capabilities
to bring ideas to market.
What are we missing? Where like-minded
people come together, they can turn
possibility into reality.
Here lies the will and desire to break
down occupational and attitudinal
silos; to establish a ‘Master Craft’ level
qualification equal but different to a
university pathway; to embrace new ways
of working, new ways of thinking. ■
Carolynne Bourne, AM, is an entrepreneur
and an alternative thinker. She holds
a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from the
University of Melbourne.
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