You can't hit what you can't see

Gregory Ronczewski leads the design of the TeamFit - view his skill profile

Bob Feller, the legendary Cleveland Indians pitcher, said this once about his fastball "You can't hit what you can't see." It captures well the challenges other sports as well, those that involve fast-moving objects coming at your face. Tennis is a good example. Professional players rely far more on their intuition than on their eyes. If you consciously plan how to hit the approaching ball, you will miss it. It just takes too long. You need to react before the ball approaches your side of the court. Does it mean that Bob Feller, or Roger Federer for that matter, have better eyes? Or perhaps they use all of their other senses to see the ball right in time to hit a perfect home run or ace the service?

It seems that we rely on our intuition far more than we will admit. After all, we like to be in control and rationally decide and plan or our actions. On the way home, we determine what street we will walk on to the bus stop. When our bus arrives, we get on it, choose where to sit—if there are any seats left, which is rare—and decide whether to read a book or to listen to music. It all happens naturally, and we don't have to plan to use any specific skills to get home. Unless it is snowing in Vancouver and you have to be creative since it usually takes a long time for public transit to realize what's going on.

It is a lot easier to hit what you can see. What happens when you can't see it? What happens when it's dark? When the bus carries way too many people and you have no idea where you are, or if the next stop is yours? Are you going to panic? No, not really. We can take subtle clues from the speed of the bus, the turns, or the ambient light outside. We can see the road in our head and estimate where we are. Often this approach comes from our conscious effort, but in most cases, it doesn't take too much just to know where we are.

I remember reading the other day about a guy who had to decide whether or not to invest in an auto manufacturer. After touring the plant and visiting the production line, he said: "Oh boy, they sure know how to make cars!" And of course, his firm invested in this car builder. Was it a rational decision or a gut feeling? Maybe it was both. Perhaps he did all due diligence to make sure this was the right choice. In the same way, as we rely on intuition in our daily chores, big businesses often do the same. It would be so much easier to make a decision when you can see what you are about to hit.

There is so much talk about skills these days. From individuals updating their resumes to big businesses competing to win on major projects. We all know what skills are, we all have them, yet we can't see them. We say that skills are our most important assets, the currency in the new economy, but it's all abstract. That's why we use testimonials, certificates or list references who we hope can say a few nice things about us and our skills.

What if there is a way to see skills. Not just individual skills but the whole map of skills. How they connect to form a unique, interweaved network describing in a language of skills a person, a team or a business. When you see something, it is much simpler not only to understand the current situation but also to make plans. This is what we are building at TeamFit. We want to help companies as well as individuals to actually see their skills. It is so much easier to hit a home run when you see what you are about to hit, and for businesses this means winning more projects, getting the right people on the teams and knowing what comes next.

Building a skill map is a lot of fun. We can add skills one by one. Our AI engine will help you by suggesting complementary and associated skills. There is an even a more straightforward way. If you upload your resume or paste a text describing a person, a team or a company, TeamFit will automatically build you a Skill Map. Just seeing it makes a huge difference.

Learn how TeamFit can quickly and precisely give you the skills insights you need. Request a Demo now.