Hear, See, Do Training
March 21, 2008 by Phil Gerbyshak
Filed under coaching, management
Yes Steve, I have found 3 passionate individuals to fill shore up my open positions. The past 2 weeks have been great fun, for I get to learn from 2 new folks, with a 3rd joining us on the 31st.And then I came upon this quote.
“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” Chinese Proverb
I read this quote and I reflected on the 2 new hires, with a 3rd one on the way, and the way we are training them, to make sure I’m doing things the right way.
Hearing - We spend some time talking, taking notes, asking questions, and just listening in on phone calls. It’s important that folks Hear how others say things, Hear how others talk, the language they use, the cadence of the calls, and how our associates expect to be treated by our Help Desk. While this may be quickly forgotten, but important to understand our culture.
Seeing - We step through each of the over 800 applications we support, with some VERY important (like the ins and outs of Microsoft Outlook, our corporate website, our intranet, and our financial services applications) and some much less important (like anything that is installed on less than 50 desktops). We show our new folks where to find the answers, who the resources are, and who all the players are. New associates SEE how the veterans on the team operate, and SEE the various right ways to give clients great customer service. Seeing may be believing but in order to learn best, we need to keep moving down the spectrum.
Doing - Within the first week, our new hires are taking calls next to our veteran associates, and by the end of 2 weeks, they’re trying to take calls solo, with the rest of the team just a stand-up, an IM, an e-mail, or a phone call away. The quicker we can get to Doing, the better fit we know the associate will be. The last 4 people hired have been able to get up to full speed in about 3 weeks. The Doing does make the difference, and we are already on the Doing for our 2 new folks, one just a week in, and one 2 weeks in.
Does this training plan work for you? How would you improve it? What could you do to make it even GREAT^er?
Next week i am onboarding new hire. The proverb you mentioned in the beginning resonates with me a lot and i am going to use it as a mantra - i like it a lot.
What i would add though is closing the loop by asking the candidate to ask questions back.
When i assign a task i ask to come back it’s finished and ask me 3 good questions.
-”What questions are good?”
- “That is the exercise, my friend!”
If no questions – he or she did not learn anything, bad sign.
Best questions should start “I was doing this and at some point…..” or “everything worked, then failed. I searched the web and found only 3 matches in Korean, I do not read Korean…”
If a new hire asks questions and offers improvements over the existing state – he or she is good to go on his/her own in the wild open
Phil, this reminds me of the training/learning credo I read of in Know Can Do! Put Your Know-How into Action by Ken Blanchard:
tell me
show me
let me
observe me
praise my progress or redirect me
My shorter one for MWA has been:
do with, not for
These mantras are more about the how though, and I applaud the consistency you have come to in your training program, culling what works for you and what doesn’t more proactively… stuff that is unfortunately left to chance and thus hit and miss in many workplaces.
Alik - Glad you enjoyed the quote. I find it’s helpful to keep in mind when leading and training.
I agree we need to close the loop on this. Good questions too. I’ll see about adopting those and let you know.
Rosa - You are absolutely right: to be effective training, learning, and re-learning HAS to be more than a mantra; it has to be part of the culture of your organization.
Do, re-do, do it again, and keep trying to find what works, and make it unique to the person and the role. No one size fits all for my folks, just a constant tweaking and re-engaging to see what’s working and what’s not.
I am a certified trainer for Job Relations Training (JRT) which is part of the TWI Program (Training Within Industry) which was developed by the US Government during WWII. Although it is now nearly 70 years old, it is still very effective. I teach the JR part, which is a 4-step method for solving problems with people (1-Get the Facts; 2-Weigh and Decide; 3-Take Action; 4-Check Results) but it sounds like when they designed the Job Instruction part they learned what you’ve talked about here.
The 4 steps for JI are: 1-Prepare the Worker; 2-Present the Operation; 3-Try Out Performance and 4-Follow Up. During one part of the training the instructor merely demonstrates tying a certain kind of knot and then asks someone in the class to do it. They can’t. Then the instructor merely tells the class how to do it without showing them and asks for a volunteer. They still can’t do it, because of what you’ve described here.
For the third part of TWI, Job Methods, the 4-step method helps workers learn how to improve the job. Those 4 steps are: 1-Break down the job; 2-Question every detail; 3-Develop the new method; 4-Apply the new method.
All of these components work together to create the best possible work environment. Although originally designed for the manufacturing industry, they are wonderful foundations for really ensuring that workers understand new instructions and get familiar with the culture of the organization so they can offer suggestions to make the workplace even better. The Hear-See-Do model you’ve described fits perfectly.
Thanks for reminding me that even the old stuff can still be the good stuff if it reinforces our foundations and fundamentals. After all, what is “fundamental” except FUN and MENTAL with “DUH” in the middle!
Thanks, Phil, as always. You ROCK!
Awesome addition Jodee! I’ll be busting this out for a separate post soon! Thanks for sharing it!
And glad to rock a bit with you. You are truly amazing as well!