Making time for curiosity

At Singular Systems curiosity and a consistent desire to know more is everyone’s responsibility as acquiring knowledge enables staff to come up with innovative solutions.

Johannesburg, 05 Nov 2019
What is a software development company’s biggest asset?

Curious and engaged people!

Uninspired, stagnant development teams don’t offer clients innovative solutions, and that is bad for business. Many IT organisations fail to recognise that nurturing a learning culture is a business imperative, not a nice-to-have. 

Learning is strategically interwoven into the fabric of the organisation’s daily operations. Everyone benefits: our people, our clients and our bottom-line. In this dynamic technology landscape, learning is core to what we at Singular Systems do. We do not simply build software. We build the most suitable software solutions for our clients’ unique business needs, based on our knowledge of what technologies exist at any given time. To do this effectively, curiosity and a consistent desire to know more must form the nucleus of our organisational culture.

Why adopt a learning culture?

Apart from the obvious benefits to clients and shareholders, fostering a learning culture attracts the best talent; people who value life-long learning are our kind of people. The IT industry bemoans the shortage of software developers, and the competition for resources is fierce. In our experience, the lack of software developers is not the problem; the publication of a single LinkedIn job advertisement yields hundreds of responses within hours. 

It’s the rarity of candidates who are genuinely excited about what they do and who are looking for an opportunity to join an organisation that mirrors this fervour. These people want to join a company that will willingly prepare them for their next career opportunity, and they have the maturity to appreciate the symbiotic nature of this relationship. These people buy into the learning ethos and want to contribute to enriching this learning culture from day one on the job.

Traditional methods of training do not have the desired results. There is a disconnect between the organisational objectives and how the content is delivered. A person  completes a course diligently, but is not empowered to authentically implement what they have been taught. Their newly acquired information is superficial at best and evaporates faster than the company’s training budget.

How to share knowledge?

At Singular Systems we are serious about instilling a learning culture, and we do this in a number of ways. We have formalised “informal” learning through our career management programme, which starts at graduate level and is maintained as the individual's career grows. 

Regular one-on-one sessions provide a forum for career managers to encourage mentees to share knowledge. This is translated into measurable contributions; for example, researching patterns to solve a particular problem on a current software project, implementing the solution and then sharing insights gained with colleagues. This usually takes the form of a short demonstration or a tantalising information session that, if successfully executed, leaves the audience wanting to research more on their own. 

It is widely understood at Singular Systems that coaching and knowledge sharing is everyone’s responsibility and there is no better way to achieve this than through peer code reviews. As a wise colleague says during every daily stand-up: “Sharing is caring.” And at Singular Systems, we care. A lot. No one is made to feel dumb for asking a stupid question. Collective knowledge is most valuable when sharing it is encouraged. 

Singular Systems’ strong learning culture exists because our people feel safe to ask questions (even dumb ones) and share their ideas without the fear of being called ignorant.

How to build a team?

At Singular Systems we come into the office. Sure, remote working arrangements have their place and working as part of distributed teams is a reality of our time, but we insist on good old fashioned, face-to-face collaboration wherever possible. Tacit knowledge is like gold and it cannot be effectively transferred over Slack. It’s in those overheard conversations, outbursts of mobile compatibility frustration, small celebrations of coding success and a multitude of other seemingly insignificant impromptu interactions and observations where the true learning magic happens.

How to make learning exciting?

Our quarterly SingularIT meet-ups are an opportunity to listen to the insights and experiences of interesting members of the wider tech community. We consciously make time for curiosity: we take a step back and listen to the accounts of success and failure so candidly expressed by our guest speakers. We identify with their stories and marvel at how they overcame their particular software delivery trials. In so doing, we regularly challenge our status quo and consider trying something new on our own projects.

Join us for our third SingularIT meet-up to take a peek behind the scenes of this bespoke software development house and listen to guest speakers Neil Roebert of F-Secure Consulting and Ian Munro of Legitimate Leadership share their wisdom on DevOps Security and IT Leadership, respectively.

Contact events@singular.co.za to secure a spot.

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Editorial contacts

Jeremy Hart
Service manager
(+27) 10 003 0700
JHart@singular.co.za