How a person approaches Excel project work is heavily ingrained in his or her personal experiences and life lessons. To start a discussion on such a unique topic, we have Jordan Goldmeier facilitating the session. Also, our in-house experts Oz du Soleil and Rick Grantham are also on the panel.
Let’s get into it!
1 – Patience
Jordan enjoys smoking food, which takes hours of work. Hence, he has learned to be really patient. If something goes haywire, he maintains his calm and thinks about how to fix the situation even though he might be wanting to simply jump out the window.
2 – Order, Structure and Cleanliness
In his personal life, Rick prefers things to be in order, but without having to do it himself. For him, receiving a junk spreadsheet (no matter how accurate the calculations are) is synonymous to coming home to a messy house. Input sheets must be together and at the start, things should be color-coded etc. You would certainly find him saying, “Don’t come in my town thinking you’re gonna create chaos”.
Jordan, on the other hand, has a deep and philosophical view on order. He likes to keep clean, be that his desk, house or spreadsheet. It is something where he is in control of the structure. Drawing parallels to smoking food, or life in general, situations do arise where chaos emanates from something not under one’s control. And, at the end of the day, it’s just like life: a crazy mixture of variables, control and chaos.
3 – Unexplored Territory
Oz, being the adventurous chap that he is, likes to wander into relatively unknown places and cultures. Even chances of ending up somewhere he doesn’t even know how to communicate with the people around do not deter him. And this is also why he loves freelancing. He craves for going into a strange town, thinking about how to fix a problem with what’s available, own the work and then move on to the next town.
Rick pointed out that some people love the consulting lifestyle: moving from one project to another every 4 to 6 months. You never have to see the face of a client personnel you hate for more than a few months.
4 – Empowering People
Oz also mentioned his passion for empowering and inspiring people. A lot of people have data analysis as second or third major component of their jobs. It’s important to teach them how not to end up in a mess. Teaching them how to get the data right and how to use it correctly is something they’ll ever be thankful for.
What’s next?
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