Editor's notes...

Wednesday, 8 April 2009

In 450BC Confucius is reputed to have said: "Tell me and I will forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I will understand."

To illustrate this point, let me share a series of telephone conversations I had with my husband on a number of Tuesday nights ...

...Tell me and I will forget:
Me: "Where's our son?"
Husband: "I don't know, why do you ask?"
Me: "Because I told you you were supposed to pick him up from football training tonight."
Husband: "Whoops! I'm on my way!"

...Show me and I may remember:
Me: "Where's our son?"
Husband: "I don't know, why do you ask?"
Me: "Because you watched him train last week and I thought you knew that on Tuesdays you pick him up from football!"
Husband: "Actually, I was just leaving!"

...Involve me and I will understand:
Me: "Where's our son?"
Husband (slightly out of breath): "Here in front of me, why do you ask?"
Me: "How are you enjoying training with him?"
Husband: "Not at all! I'm absolutely knackered! We'll be home soon!"

I think it also pays to remember this simple philosophy when you train staff on the wanders of a new IT application.

Simply "telling" us something is just not enough. Particularly if the conversation starts with the breezy words: "it's simple, all you have to do is...." - big mistake - big, big mistake. It's never simple and it's never "all you have to do."

So "showing" us is better. Very much better if you've had time to grab a pad and pen to jot down the procedure before your friendly IT guru has moved on to another hapless victim - sorry, user.

But here's the Holy Grail or Holy Wok if you're following the Confucius theme.  

Taking the extra time to both demonstrate a new procedure and make your student replicate your action for themselves after you've demonstrated it and also telling them why the function is so important and why it needs to be done in a certain way. (If you can't do this, then maybe it doesn't have to be done in that way after all?) And, check they can do it again later in the day/week as well. After all practice - or in this case "involvement" - makes perfect.

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