One-day experience: a tool for exchanging knowledge

Knowledge about certain fields can’t always be acquired in written form, especially when those fields are developing so quickly that even the most advanced blogs can’t keep up. It’s important to talk with other people; to meet new people, their problems and solutions and their view on the world. One of the best forms of learning, which benefits both sides, is mentoring.

Mentoring: quid pro quo

When I have my coffees with the CEO, a lot of my colleagues often mention mentoring; the wish to have someone who would provide them with even more practical knowledge and with whom they could exchange experiences or simply have a productive debate.

We’ve already had a couple of such exchange programs with people from our field; for example when we visited our role models or when 4 competing experts from the world of SEO went on a Balkan trip. We’ve even had a couple of individuals in Optiweb and they certainly brightened up our day:

Igor Bajsič – SEOPRO
Jan Štefe and Tim Potočnik – Eurosender
Katarina Horaček Kokošar – Genialis
Tina Zdjelar – Smooth
Matevž Kaše – Erpium
Tilen Sotler – DeweSoft

At the same time, we had a wonderful experience when we sent out Magento team lead, Anže, to D·Labs for a whole month and he came back with countless new ideas about how to improve our work environment.

A common point of all such visits is a constructive debate, with which both sides learn something new::

A lot of new solutions; by pointing out our problems, we quickly realise that our colleague for the day may also have faced that same problem at one point in their career.
Examples of good practice; finding out some extraordinary practices and how they may be of use.
Finding a common point that leads to further cooperation and mutual help.
New acquaintances! The more people that know you and know what you do, the greater the reach.

The most important thing of all is to trust someone with your problems and realize we all have the same problems – the only thing that sets them apart from you is how successfully they solve them. These kinds of meetings bring positive energy (at least to me and I believe to many others) and give you additional boost for your upcoming work.

Mentor for one day

All of the above-mentioned experts proved to be a great experience, so naturally my colleagues wanted more of them. This gave us the idea of implementing a so-called “One-day experience”: a one-day visit by an expert from one of our fields; someone who can teach us something new while we repay them with a slightly different day in good company (and of course reimburse them for their expenses or give them a special present).

This is therefore not based on payment but on experience and spending a day a little differently, on seeing our culture and meeting new people, from which our visitors can also learn something themselves.

Our first volunteer was Klemen Selakovič, who exchanged his knowledge with our design team. He wrote down a little something about his experience:

“Miha Lavtar and I had one of those acquaintances that was born and lived exclusively in the world of the greatest social media channel.

Even though we move in the same circles and, consequently, have quite a few mutual acquaintances, we’ve never actually met until I came to Miha’s company. I was looking forward to the inevitable talk about our common interests and to exchanging our knowledge, but our meeting always seemed to be postponed due to our obligations and travels.

I said yes to the idea of exchanging knowledge with the design team and of visiting Optiweb’s offices in an airport on my way to Hongkong, the last stop of my 3-month business travel around metropolitan cities of Asia.

Visiting Škofja Loka was therefore the first event in my calendar, only a day after I landed in Jože Pučnik airport. The inevitable jet lag was to be fought with a double espresso, promised to me by the Optiweb team.

Klemen (second from the left) with our designers, Katja, Barbara and Darko.

As soon as I stepped into the modernly decorated offices, I felt something that is absent in the majority of Slovenian companies. The felling of a connected team and positive individuals can’t be overlooked. A lot has already been written about Optiweb’s culture in the Slovene media (and, may I say, more than deservedly).

Talking with the talented 4-member design team in Optiweb passed, as expected, in a relaxing manner. I will save you, good reader, all the talks about Balsamiq, UXPin, Invision, Craft and Sketch for another time. I’m more than positive that our mutual exchange of experiences and work processes will prove to be beneficial to both sides.

After lunch (which the Optiweb team already has at around 11 a.m. :o), when Miha proposed that we walk past the river terraces to the Town square in the center of the beautiful and medieval Škofja Loka, I noticed he possesses an awareness and a mentality that aren’t common with the majority of Slovene CEOs.

Automation of work, the future of formal education, the entry of young people into the labor market and social responsibility of companies were only a few of the topics we touched upon. These are the fields that present challenges that will shake up the younger Slovene population and their parents’ mentality beyond recognition in the next twenty years.

The model of a personal and professional growth, motivation, connectedness, education and employee training is one that Optiweb successfully follows and one that should be seriously considered by other companies. At least those companies who, in the next decade, don’t wish to lose their most perspective employees to the trends of freelancing and foreign headhunters.

Quietly, I hope that Optiweb is only one of the first out of many Slovene companies that starts putting their employees first.”

Our first one-day experience was an amazing one, which can also be confirmed by the team, who prepared questions in advance and gained an insight into a completely new set of approaches. Once again, we were proven that cooperation does count! :)

We of course took it a step further, so we also invited:

Maja Voje
Sandra Valantič
Primož Cigler

Needless to say, we want to keep going. Maybe you’ve got what it takes to be a part of our next One-day experience? :)

Miha Lavtar

CEO

Founder and CEO of Optiweb, who started his entrepreneurship journey at the age of 19. My vision is to build companies with heart and soul which was already recognized by 5 different HR awards.

Mentoring: quid pro quo

Mentor for one day

Miha Lavtar

CEO

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One-day experience: a tool for exchanging knowledge

Mentoring: quid pro quo

Mentor for one day

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Miha Lavtar

CEO

Don’t miss out on similar articles

Employee life cycle

Need Measure Summit 2022 notes? We’re happy to share

All roads lead to Škofja Loka