Active listening
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The price of being incompetent without realising it
We all have areas where we are simply incompetent and we don't even know how incompetent we are.
In specific scenarios, we assume that there are things that we are not good at all, but sometimes we are surprised by our capacity to overcome obstacles and find outstanding solutions out of our comfort zone.
But the real problem is when we are convinced that we know how to embark on a challenge, but we actively contribute to a greater disaster - fueled by the most irritating and unconscious incompetence.
This behaviour is much more common than we might think. One way to avoid this is by listening to others and working more as a team, seeing when these weaknesses become evident. Active listening allows us to foresee through others what we are good at and what we are a mess.
The good outcome is to discover our incompetence, face it with humility and learn how to work with others.
Dunning-Kruger Effect
Why ignorance feels to recognise itself
APRIL 2022
Smart SDK project is now live!
Do you know what Smart SDK Project is?
The Vodafone Group has been implementing a new business strategy for the last 18 months: sign partnerships with IoT vendors in countries where all Opcos from the Smart Tech world are operating. In this context, Celfocus collaborates with Vodafone Group, in particular on Consumer IoT solutions, building up a solution to a deploy a set of services to provide connectivity, on-boarding and management capabilities for outdoor Consumer IoT devices. The team created a module, an SDK, that allows all the activations to the network and subscriptions management, along with other add-on capabilities related to alarms triggered by IoT devices.
The launch happened in South Africa and Spain, and the products are called Linea+ and Car Connect (you can find the mobile apps on Apple Store and Google Play).
Linea+
The IoT device is similar to a watch, but always connected to the network, which allows users to generate and communicate SOS alerts in case of any dangerous situation. This will help people to fight criminality and to get better and faster support, especially in a country where the numbers say that more than 5000 criminal occurrences happen every single day.
Car Connect
The IoT device is a dongle to connect to the car, that will allow users to connect their cars to the network and receive alerts of towing, crashing, intrusion, movement, etc., which, in the same way, will help people to get immediate support by automatic alerts communication by SMS, IVR and Agent call.
SquaDK is the Celfocus team that built all the mobile capabilities that enable the connection between Partner and Vodafone platforms, rendering this as a single and seamless product for the end users.
TELCO Data Strategy | Architecture Blueprint
A new blueprint, TELCO Data Strategy, is now available.
The objective of this blueprint is to set the foundations for a modern data strategy that helps telcos move forward in their goal of being data-driven. It provides some background context and identifies technical and organisational topics around:
- key underpinning pillars
- data platform capabilities
- data governance model
Additionally it identifies where Celfocus can be positioned to help implement the concepts described in this document.The document is final and is intended to support Celfocus, as an organisation, in upcoming initiatives in the TELCO Business.
This blueprint is generally available on the Blueprint’s page of the Architecture Office’s SharePoint. For additional queries, please send us an email.
Important: This document is directed to Celfocus employees. Do not distribute to clients or partners.
International Women’s Day
On March 7th, preceding International Women’s Day, we gathered a panel from different areas to discuss the power of voice and our bias towards this subject. For this debate we invited speakers from different areas of Celfocus, such as Maria Gil (Board Member), Nádia Duarte (Head of Talent Acquisition), Luís Ôchoa (Head of Quality Assurance), and our host was Daniel Moura (Digital Offer & Sales Manager). We also had an external guest and expert in this area, Inês Moura, an Executive Vocal Coach for over 10 years, that develops her work with several international companies and European associations.
We believe this is a topic worthy of reflection that should be highlighted every day, from a transversal point of view, as we all (men and women) have different perspectives, tones, manners, and biases that should be weighed.
Several factors come together when we try to explain bias. History plays a significant role and helps us clarify certain circumstances, but our background, education, and society’s expectations are also considerable influences, even if unconscious. Therefore, it’s important to be self-aware of your habits and patterns, how you speak and listen to others, and how that might be affecting your personal and professional relationships.
The challenge is to pay attention and challenge our own judgments about people’s voices and what they mean to us. After raising awareness about our own biases, it will also be our role as parents to educate next generations, trying to teach them the balance between being considerate with others, while still being able to speak for themselves. Even if we don’t think about this often, our voice and the way we speak will be decisive in situations like a job interview, when we ask for a raise or investment, among other crucial steps of our lives.
Considering this, in the corporate environment that surrounds us every day, why is it so important that all voices get an opportunity to speak up? Summing up, it’s all about strategy. In an organization like Celfocus, we deal with different people, clients, and cultures daily.
When conflict arises and we must choose a specific profile to solve it, we should always keep in mind that different approaches are needed to respond to different challenges.
It’s not always about the strongest voice, the most confident speaker, or the person that’s going to be the “toughest” in the dialogue. Sometimes, solving conflict is about diplomacy, empathy, understanding, and then, committing and compromising. To get the best results, decisions should avoid biases and presumptions and be based on competence above all.
That is why, at Celfocus, we want to continue developing a culture where our leaders and teams understand that all voices are valuable, and all voices should be heard and capitalized in different situations. At the end of the day, we want to acknowledge that our Celfies bring diverse styles and authenticity to the table, which are vital to build trust with colleagues, clients, and stakeholders.
Celfocus Trends
Two new Celfocus Trends videos are out!
Celfocus Trends is a collection of short videos on technological trends, competitors' landscape, solutions, challenges created by our very own Subject Matter Experts.
The latest Trends focus on the new wave of opportunity with the advent of 5g and the revolution of the television and entertainment industry.
- A new class of operational efficiency – João Miguel Antunes (Order Management & Integration)
5G represents a new wave of opportunity similar to the revolution of early days mobile voice communication and high bandwidth mobile data! AI-driven decision making, zero-touch process automation and network as a service are crucial to manage the network and and support the new business paradigm.
- The television and entertainment revolutions – Phillip Luís (DTV)
Consumer expectations towards TV have changed over the past years as new players and formats rapidly scale and reshape their usage patterns. TV Telcos are in the front line to improve and offer personalised content and Celfocus is helping them adapt and make use of powerful and innovative technologies!
You can now watch all released videos on our Vimeo Channel, here.