High Performance Skills

On December 3, 2010 · 6 Comments

One of the driving thoughts behind Gearbox Magazine is a desire to help gearheads live better lives outside the automotive realm. Our experiences online help us build better cars, but how can we adapt those skills to build better lives?  

Forums
The bulk of automotive enthusiast knowledge sharing online still happens on forums. Often tailored to particular platforms or models, these discussion boards serve as community hubs where owners exchange information, ideas, and more. While more gearheads supplement their automotive pursuits through mainstream social media outlets (e.g., Facebook, Twitter) these days, the forum remains the foundation of technical information, troubleshooting, and community.

Automotive Skills
Participation in these forums teaches enthusiasts about their vehicles; how to maintain, repair, and modify them. Through a combination of hands-on experience and third party accounts, gearheads gain confidence in any number of general automotive topics of their choosing, broadly applicable within the automotive sector.

“Into Cars”
Active forum participants clearly possess improved automotive aptitude, but the early years of the internet have conditioned us to view our time online “talking about cars” as little more than a waste of time. Our families and non-gearhead friends refer to us as people who are “into cars,” marginalizing what I believe is a form of lifelong learning.

Elementary
I believe people inherently have an insatiable thirst for knowledge, so long as that knowledge relates to their passions. For some gearheads, history is a bore, but they can tell you the specific month and year a particular vehicle was offered with a given option. Personally, I never enjoyed math in school, but I enjoyed learning how to calculate fuel injector requirements for my engine, given brake specific fuel consumption and target duty cycle.

High Performance Vehicles
High Performance Individuals
In 2011, Gearbox Magazine will be evolving to include content promoting greater understanding and mastery of the technical, automotive concepts gearheads crave, but also to highlight the many ways our online automotive experiences translate into more general skills applicable to our careers and personal lives outside the automotive realm.

Key Skills
We’ll be looking to show gearheads how they likely already possess the following key skills for success.

  • Search – Getting the right information when we need it.
  • Critical Thinking – Finding meaning and significance.
  • Creative Thinking – Coming up with new ideas.
  • Analytical – Solving problems.
  • Networking – Building relationships.
  • Logic – Applying reason, validating assumptions.

This post inspired by “Key Skills for High Performance,” Charles Jennings, Training Industry Quarterly.

One of the driving thoughts behind Gearbox Magazine is a desire to help gearheads live better lives outside the automotive realm. Our experiences online help us build better cars, but how can we adapt those skills to build better lives?

Forums

The bulk of automotive enthusiast knowledge sharing online still happens on forums. Often tailored to particular platforms or models, these discussion boards serve as community hubs where owners exchange information, ideas, and more. While more gearheads supplement their automotive pursuits through mainstream social media outlets (e.g., Facebook, Twitter) these days, the forum remains the foundation of technical information, troubleshooting, and community.

Automotive Skills
Participation in these forums teaches enthusiasts about their vehicles; how to maintain, repair, and modify them. Through a combination of hands-on experience and third party accounts, gearheads gain confidence in any number of general automotive topics of their choosing, broadly applicable within the automotive sector.

“Into Cars”

Active forum participants clearly possess improved automotive aptitude, but the early years of the internet have conditioned us to view our time online “talking about cars” as little more than a waste of time. Our families and non-gearhead friends refer to us as people who are “into cars,” marginalizing what I believe is a form of lifelong learning.

Elementary

I believe people inherently have an insatiable thirst for knowledge, so long as that knowledge relates to their passions. For some gearheads, history is a bore, but they can tell you the specific month and year a particular vehicle was offered with a given option. Personally, I never enjoyed math in school, but I enjoyed learning how to calculate fuel injector requirements for my engine, given brake specific fuel consumption and target duty cycle.

High Performance Vehicles
High Performance Individuals

In 2011, Gearbox Magazine will be evolving to include content promoting greater understanding and mastery of the technical, automotive concepts gearheads crave, but also to highlight the many ways our online automotive experiences translate into more general skills applicable to our careers and personal lives outside the automotive realm.

Key Skills

Search – Getting the right information when we need it.

Critical Thinking – Finding meaning and significance.

Creative Thinking – Coming up with new ideas.

Analytical – Solving problems.

Networking – Building relationships.

Logic – Applying reason, validating assumptions.

This post inspired by “Key Skills for High Performance,” Charles Jennings, Training Industry Quarterly Ezine, Fall 2010.

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/trainingindustry/tiq_2010fall/index.php?startid=10#/12

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  • Charles

    Thanks for the reference, Brian. I'm not a heavy motor enthusiast myself, but think that we can all learn a lot from the key skills that motor racing teams need to, and invariably do, have – accuracy at speed, specialisation, critical thinking skills, analytical skills, logic etc.

    I've been a bit of work with Derek Daly (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D…) in this area – looking at setting up experiential learning programs to teach business managers about all of the above through working with an IndyCar team for 5 days. It's a fascinating area.

    Charles Jennings

  • http://gearboxmagazine.com Brian Driggs

    Thank you for the comment (and tweet), sir.

    It's interesting to consider all the ways motorsport can become a business and how business can learn from motorsport. Everything is connected. My goal with this project is to show the common gearhead how he likely already possesses considerably developed business skills. Combined with a little inward reflection, I believe enthusiasts stand to discover new ways to better align their lives with their automotive passions.

    Myself as an example, I discovered I enjoy modifying cars, but not as much as I enjoy modifying car culture – the people. I was able to use my experiences in the automotive community online (which were not on my résumé) to land a great job developing training curriculum within a larger, for-profit university.

    We like playing with cars, but what do we like most about it, and why?
    The trick is making those connections.

  • LD25Delta9

    This is an amazing analysis of the gearhead thought process. I never really thought about applying the same concepts to my daily ho-hum. It makes a lot of sense! You've given me a little different outlook on a future business venture, and I look forward to seeing more put into this article. I'd also like to see the results with the program Charles mentioned.

  • http://dr1665.com Brian Driggs

    Wow. Thanks, LD! Appreciate the sentiment. This is a concept we're trying to develop over time. Your mention of a business venture strikes a chord as well. How often do gearheads think their only options to do what they love means they have to open a performance shop or work on cars? We are a diverse group of people with many interests – and needs – which could ultimately be better served by other gearheads.

    New sales reps are often charged with selling to their own families. For us, our fellow forum-goers represent an aspect of family – of brotherhood. Seems like a great way to start a business to me. Who else can you trust to provide honest feedback to help you succeed?

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