Embarking on his personal GT journey, Atty. Bethuel “Bits” Tanupan discovered that even with his knowledge and expertise, there existed untapped spaces for growth. Like a diligent librarian, he recognized the importance of clearing out outdated information to make room for fresh insights. This revelation was a call to action to explore the world of process improvement and automation. Through perseverance and self-learning, he ventured into the realm of coding, transforming manual tasks into automated solutions, embracing a new role as a lawyer / accountant / master’s degree holder / coder. Atty. Bethel’s testimonial highlights the ceaseless potential of learning, showing that age is no barrier to adding more slashes to one’s name and skills.
The Great Transformation Challenge made me realize that one can do more to add value to the organization by allowing process improvement to help in reinforcing my technical expertise as a subject matter expert.
I am an accountant slash lawyer slash masters degree holder. With all those ‘slashes’, many would think that learning is second nature to me. It is true that learning is a must for people in my profession. In fact, we are required to have regular updates on technical knowledge since we are considered subject matter experts in our technical field.
With a head full of knowledge, sometimes I feel that there is no more room for more. However, the Great Transformation allowed me to realize that there is indeed room for more. Like a library, I should be ready to ‘archive’ archaic knowledge to make room for new ones. Being a subject matter expert, my thinking then was that technical expertise should be sufficient. Then the Great Transformation Challenge reminded me of the song – Never Enough!
The Great Transformation Challenge made me realize that one can do more to add value to the organization by allowing process improvement to help in reinforcing my technical expertise as a subject matter expert. In the performance of my role as a service provider to the group, many of my manual processes took a great deal of time. I came to realize that these manual processes are not value-adding and I diminished my time to focus on strategic directions and problem solving.
In response to the Great Transformation Challenge, I decided to evaluate the manual processes and check if I could have this process improved, either by way of automation or streamlining. After identifying the manual processes, the next big question was HOW? How can I streamline or automate this? Automating would require introductory or basic knowledge of coding, and engaging with a developer/coder would require budget and costs.Therefore, I did what I always do best-SELF-LEARNING.
In law-school and graduate-school, I was taught to continually self-learn. I tried looking for schools that offer basic Python coding knowledge. My intention then was not to shift my career to become a coder/developer. My intention was to obtain basic knowledge, which would allow me to experiment with automating some of my manual processes. Unfortunately, schools have no short-term classes or require students to enroll full-time. Consequently, the self-learner in me was unleashed. I bought e-books on Python and watched free video tutorials available online. I was very thankful then for AEV’s subscription to Linked-In Learning and UBP Xcellerator Program as it allowed me to access free online videos related to learning basic coding.
Then… the magic happened. My experimentation on the learning I have in basic coding allowed me to automate some of my manual processes, including email sending, web crawling for research, searching for a text in a file or across multiple files and more. It was not easy, though. It took a lot of perseverance, determination, patience, and experimentation. . The finished product is not perfect, but at least I am using it! The learning process taught me how to have this mindset – if it’s manually done, find ways to automate it! The knowledge I learned from this allowed me to have a better perspective or understanding on automation projects within the group.
The Great Transformation Challenge made me realize that there is no limit when it comes to learning. I just turned 50 years old this year, and I can now add another slash to my name – lawyer slash accountant slash masters degree holder slash coder – and I am proud of it.
Scroll on below to watch Atty Bits’ GT Story at the Storytellers Leaders Caravan.
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