You have three new hires and they need to learn a system quickly. Will you train them together or separately?
Challenge of new people and new skills
I had three relatively new hires and I needed them to be up and running on a budget tracking system soon. They had never seen one of these before and this was a new responsibility for them. I had to decide how I was going to make this happen.
A training session, or another way?
One choice was to go through the whole model as a formal training session, and to do so with everyone at the same time so I didn’t repeat myself. That seemed efficient.
Another choice though was to present them with the model, and the goal that they all be adept at using it within three days, and then asking if they wanted a training session or if they wanted to learn a different way. None of them opted for the training session!
Actually, three other ways!
One chose a path of working through the model until she had a question. We would talk through the question and then she would go back progressing through the model until she had another question. It was intermittent but she only needed my time for very focused issues.
A second team member chose the approach of keeping a log of questions and at the end of the day we would go through them all. He only needed targeted amounts of my time.
And the third team member used the approach of dismantling the whole model and then putting it back together again. He didn’t ask for any of my time!
Result was efficient, and effective
At the end of the three days, they were all comfortable and proficient in how the model worked. Together we were now talking in more nuanced ways of why we were using the model and how we could improve it.
This whole experience reminded me that as a trainer I’m biased in how I want to train something.
But if we let the people who are learning, learn in their own way, then we’re both efficient and effective.
Exercise for supporting learning
So here’s an exercise to help you strengthen your development muscle:
- Today, pick a tool or a skill that you want someone else to pick up.
- Then acknowledge what the first method is that comes to mind for how you would train it.
- Then generate a longer list of alternative ways that someone might want to learn it – maybe with video, or shadowing you, or having daily check-ins, or just an instruction guide.
- Every day this week, share your list with someone and ask what their preferred methods would be and if they have new ones to offer.
- At the end of the week, notice what surprised you and what method you might want to try.
