The cashier was frustrated. She couldn’t get her register to work.
Someone came over and asked what the problem was.
“Oh, that,“ he said. “That’s easy. Watch this.”
Then he showed her how to fix the problem, walking her through it so she understood what to do next time.
Soon I was ready to leave. But first I looked for the man who had helped the cashier and obviously did training for the store.
“That was great,” I told him. “The way you handled that was really impressive.”
He looked surprised.
I went on to tell him what had impressed me was the fact that he had told his co-worker the solution to the problem was an easy one before going on to show her what it was.
Often in school and, later, on the job, a teacher or trainer will say, “This next part is difficult, so we’ll go slowly.”
And what happens?
Most people tense up when told something is difficult. We become afraid we won’t understand. Our minds close down.
So if this is our response when we encounter this approach to training, why is it so tempting to engage in it when we’re the trainer?
I’m willing to bet that we start by forgetting what it’s like to be on the receiving end of messages that begin with “This will be really difficult.” (Hint: It’s a little like “We need to talk about our relationship.”)
We may also assume that, when presented with a challenge, people benefit from having the difficulty announced up front. But do we have any evidence of that?
Imagine a child being told, “This object can be dangerous, and isn’t always easy to control or direct. When you’re using it outside, people will come at you from all directions. In rainy or snowy weather, you can really get injured.”
How many of us would have gotten on our first bicycle with that as a prelude?
So why adopt that approach to teaching anything?
Of course, I’m not suggesting you lie and say something is easy when it’s not. But instead of starting out by announcing how difficult the task is, why not say, “This next thing we’re going to do is really interesting. There’s a fair amount to learn, and some of it is a bit complicated, but it really pays off.”
Now we’re getting somewhere. We’re focused on the goal and the reward for doing the work that takes us there.
“But wait a minute,” you say. “What are you doing talking about complication? I thought you said things were supposed to be easy.”
No. It’s not that everything is easy. Some things are difficult. But we make them more so when we focus on that difficulty rather than the pleasure inherent in learning and what our new-found knowledge will allow us to do.
I also happen to think that complication has gotten some bad press when, in fact, it’s woven into daily life. But that’s another story.
©2009, 2012 Laynie Tzena. All Rights Reserved.
No comments yet.