It Takes Two to Tango!
Many years ago…
I sat in an auditorium as a well-known former executive, author and business professor spoke about, “teachable moments.”
It had been a long day, following a long couple of weeks, following a long couple of months. I remember sitting through his speech, feeling highly agitated, and frankly, a little annoyed.
I wanted to be “anywhere” but where I was at that moment. My head was certainly not in the game, and my heart was focused on “home”… my husband was managing our move into a short-term apartment with our two small daughters, while our new home was being built in Michigan.
All I could think about was my family.
Fast-forward to today...
I was reading an old article by this same person, and I was struck by the brilliance and simplicity of its main points. These hit home in a way they had not that day. Suddenly, the wisdom of what this man had said and written resonated to my very bones: I felt the truth of it.
It brought to mind how today, a huge part of what I do is help transform organizations... defining their strategy, aligning their structure to their needs, getting the right person in the right seat, helping to develop people so that they can achieve their best.
We dedicate a lot of time and energy to this last part - developing people. Helping them understand the complexities and nuances of their roles, and how those roles are interdependent upon others in the organization. Teaching new skills, and refining existing ones. Coaching, and frequent followup as folks take on new tasks and projects. And on the Shop Floor, we develop the Team Leaders, teaching them about Lean, 5s, Standard Work, Quality, Problem Solving, and Kaizen.
One of the methods we use in Lean and Continuous Improvement to help develop people, is something called, “Job Instruction”. This is the same training approach pioneered in America for the War effort that was used to quickly train the, “Rosie the Riveters.” It’s an incredibly effective means of quickly raising the skill level of your workforce, enabling you to make improvements and changes in processes that are rapidly and readily accepted, to ensure safety, quality and productivity expectations are met.
What is the Job Instruction Training Method?
Before we can start training, we need to have a documented standard for how the job is done, which is the Job Breakdown (or full standard work). We need a qualified trainer (the teacher), and a learner (the worker, or employee). The method itself is fairly straightforward, rather prescriptive, and has four main steps:
Prepare the Worker
Present/ Demonstrate the Job/ Operation
Try Out Performance
Follow-Up
We will focus on the first of these steps, which when done well, sets the stage for successful transfer of knowledge and the acquisition of skills.
What do we mean by, “Prepare the Worker”?
There are a few things we want to do to prepare the worker. First, we want to make certain that the employee feels comfortable. Next, we should take a bit of time to discuss the job we are training for, and find out what the employee already knows. Next, we want to explain “why” the job is important, and get the employee interested in learning the job. And finally, we want to ensure that the worker is in the correct position (whether that is sitting, standing, etc.) to learn the job.
This seems simple, right?
I am a huge proponent of Job Instruction Training, but even I recognize there is something that we could be missing if we don’t understand the full intent of “Prepare the Worker” (you can read the original Job Instruction manual…follow the link if you are interested!).
On the original Job Instruction reference card, the phrase, “make certain the employee feels comfortable” that is commonly used in many modern-day Job Instruction descriptions, was originally, “Put him at ease”. There is a significant difference between these two phrases.
We tend to make an assumption that if someone is right in front of us, they are mentally and emotionally, “ready” to learn. This is not always the case.
As I reflect back to the afternoon of that speech, I recognize that I was most definitely not at ease, nor was I prepared to learn. Still, something stuck in my brain, indexed away, for me to retrieve some twenty years later, to pull out, and turn over in my mind like the pages of a well-worn book. That concept was, “teachable moment”.
How Do We Know the Moment is Right?
There is a saying we teach along with Job Instruction Training:
“If the Learner Hasn’t Learned… the Teacher Hasn’t Taught.”
This is a straightforward way of saying it is the responsibility of the teacher to make certain the learner is prepared, and the rest of the method is conducted effectively. But, it takes two to tango!
It occurs to me that before we begin the step of, “Preparing the Worker,” we need to first find that moment, when the teacher has the emotional energy to teach, and the learner has the emotional energy to learn. This can be as simple as having a conversation, “Is now a good time?” and adjusting if needed. Make sure that the worker is at ease and ready to learn. We need to be flexible to enable us to find that magic, teachable moment where much more than a fragment of thought is left behind.
©2020 Dawn Armfield, ValueFlo Consulting LLC
