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Ask
most good teachers and they'll tell you they've
received more from the experience than they've given.
Is this false modesty, or is there something here worth considering?
Granted,
some teachers are better than others - indeed, a few are
so superior it would be a crime to use their talents in any
other way - but in most cases their effectiveness is the
result of hard work, dedicated study, and a structure that
allows them to look at their subject with a different set
of eyes than most people, and in so doing they move to a new
level of understanding. For some, this transition is a matter
of chance, but more often than not success is the result of
a purposeful process.
Several
weeks ago I visited a job site - site preparation for a shopping
mall - and as the noon hour approached, a couple of roach
coaches pulled up honking vigorously, announcing to all within
earshot that it was time for lunch. After George, the project
superintendent, and I loaded ourselves up with some of "Sally's
Fine Foods," he ushered me over to where a crew had gathered
to chow down and relax before going back to work - or so I
thought.
"OK,
guys," one of the diners said in a loud voice. "Listen
up." With that the speaker held up what was obviously
an unserviceable safety harness for everyone to see and proceeded
to deliver a five-minute talk on the proper care and use of
the equipment. After succeeding in getting the crew's
attention, the presenter settled into his subject and by the
time he finished, we all knew more about the life and times
of safety harnesses than we would ever need to know. It was,
despite the chorus of obligatory disparagements, a job well
done, and I said so to my host.
"Not
bad for a rookie," George allowed, explaining that the
presenter had only recently been promoted and the lunchbox
training talk was part of the process for developing his leadership
skills. "Eric made a couple of goofs, but yeah, by and
large it was a good start." With that he excused himself
to go over and review the presentation with the young man
while the subject was still fresh in their minds.
"I
take it this is a standard process when you promote people,"
I suggested when George returned.
"Yep,
it accomplishes several things at once.
"For
starters," George explained, choosing his words very
carefully to make sure I understood the importance he attached
to what he said, "the responsibility for conducting
training forced Eric to rethink all the training stuff he's
listened to in the past. There's nothing new in what
he just said - he's heard it a dozen times in the
last year - but I can promise you that the difference
between what he knows about the subject today and what he
knew last week is night and day."
George
paused to emphasize his next thoughts. "That's
important to his self-confidence, of course, but even more
important to both him and us, it establishes a distance
between him and the people who, up to last week, were his
buddies." Here George looked over at the crew and its
new leader picking up to return to work. "It's
an important part of the weaning process," he concluded.
When
we think about training, it's easiest for us to direct
the bulk of our attention to the most skilled tasks our people
are asked to do, and this is reasonable since these jobs most
often have the greatest impact on productivity and thus our
company's bottom line. But when you get right down to
it, your company's performance is the sum total of a
great number of tasks where a mistake in even the seemingly
most trivial of them can carve out a huge chunk of your profit.
If you look at training as one of your company's day-to-day
job-site activities, you can have the benefit of a high-priced
program that leads to increased performance at every level
without becoming a line item on your budget. Are we talking
magic here? You bet!
Send
John an Email
GEC
- July/August 2003
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