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Don't worry, Oliver. There is enough dysfunction out there to make ALL that learning transferable and useful! Becoming good at it doesn't limit your toolset, it just allows you to hone it and improve its transferability. The other tools in your armoury don't rust, as dealing with dysfunction inevitably calls them all into play.

Trust me, been there, done that, got the scars and the t-shirt! 😀

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Thanks Tony, that made me smile! I think I was reflecting more on whether it pushes you towards a certain specialisation in your skills that could just draw you to even more dysfunction.

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It certainly does. When I started work with the Inner London Education Authority I was put in a school that needed turning round, then a college that needed the same. An adviser came to me one day to inform me of another upcoming vacancy. He said, 'It needs turning round, and that's what you do!' That's how I ended up at ILECC. 😄

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Thinking about my current work, I wonder if learning to live through dysfunction is simply the first step towards more productive learning? Something of a foundation for deeper work maybe? I think that although these activities in fixing up problematic workflows or clunky technology may not seem 'transferable' as a set of skills to be listed on LinkedIn, what I do think is transferable is the mindset in how I approach these situations. I am not sure if it is related, but this has me thinking about the Solo Taxonomy, but maybe that is different. Not sure.

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