My Story – Taiss Quartapa

From an early age, I have always thrived on variety. I was fascinated by everything and wanted nothing more than to just keep discovering. As a child, this was acceptable and seen as the fickleness of youth.

It wasn’t until much later in life that I was diagnosed with High-functioning Autism, ADHD and Opposition Defiance Disorder – and I often make jokes about the fact that my non-neurotypical makeup makes me literally incapable of staying on one track or following ‘normal rules’.

Part of my neuro makeup means I have two modes – scattered or hyper-focused. My mind never had a ‘train of thought’ – but an ‘electrical storm’. Sometimes, this is noisy but can lead to capturing sudden flashes of insight between lightning-strikes.

I also noticed a pattern where I would become interested in an area and I would deep-dive in, becoming all-consumed, become pretty good at whatever it was – and then I would hit this point where I’d ‘wear it out’. A friend once coined these periods as my ‘knowledge benders’ which lasted from a month through to a year.

The topic never mattered. I always thrived on learning and mastering new expertise – not for profit, nor glory – but for the innate joy of satiating my insatiable curiosity with discovery and understanding.

As an adult, there was a sense that I shouldn’t be as ‘fickle’ and persist in a field – after all, with all the time, energy (and oft huge amounts of money) devoted to a new field – I should be doing something with it, right!?

Often, one of two things would occur – a sense of boredom – no, that’s not the right word, the spark of excitement and challenge faded – as I cross that barrier where I can say ‘yeah, I got this’ … or the market-place wasn’t willing to hire someone who’s previous work experience doesn’t match the new discipline.

Living in a culture that values speciality – unless you work in start-ups or small populations – chances are you are hired to ‘work your lane’ and not get involved in any other functions. Throughout my career, this became a key source of unhappiness.

However, I enjoyed the novelty, challenge and variety that these ‘knowledge benders’ took me on, and since I couldn’t swap roles – I did the only thing I was able to – I decided to incorporate the new learning’s into the current role.

Initially seeking practical experience in these new skills, I quickly discovered new benefits. Thinking about problems in my role through the lens of different skills or disciplines led to the synthesis of ideas, the concoction of new solutions, and learning to translate between modes of thought.

I became far more adaptable in my roles, and in doing so became ‘invaluable’.

That’s not what I wanted! I desired greater change! I was trying to escape!

Necessity’s lesson was a realisation I had to become replaceable – which could only occur if I undertook two things: re-engineer tasks to be undertaken by another role; and train someone to be able to replace me. Project self-redundancy was borne.

I recreated my roles, incorporating learnings to improve capability, finding efficiencies and training or mentoring people to take over. Whilst I’ve simplified these actions, they themselves taught me new skills – namely to be able to engage and empathise with a broader set of people – which ultimately led to greater leadership capabilities.

In a few roles, this leadership potential was recognised and so self-redundancy pitches were greeted with promotion. Dang-it!

Whilst I’ve never able to escape the gravitation of the IT Industry, my roles have been diverse enough and rarely caused me the anxiety as those early days of my career.

Finding a passion for developing the people around me, I try to ‘pay-it-forward’. I’ve been the architect of global learning programmes, staff development and progression plans and a coach to over a hundred people – and that’s been the real gold.

My transformations haven’t been the classic butterfly’s cocoon emergence, but a continued renewal – like the mimicry of an octopus that adapts itself to the environment it finds itself in. The rewards to self – and career – have been invaluable.

With a workscape of 34 years – as an employee, a volunteer, locum, coach and business owner – Taiss is on a continuing and progressively unfolding journey towards a polymathic portfolio existence. Always seeking the next knowledge bender, things to get excitedly involved in and ways to do good. Alone is fine, but company always appreciated.