It’s Much Easier To Do It Naturally

But what if you’re not? 2nd easiest is to learn it from someone who is. But what if you don’t know anyone? Meet someone. But what if I’m not good at meeting people? Start here.

The top organizations out there spend a lot of time training employees. Do you work for one? Most of the time, a new employee starts by riding with, sitting with or talking with one of the top performers. This is a great place to start. Better yet, it’s a great place to continue. When employees job shadow each other throughout their tenure, they are more likely to perform at a higher level. How can I say this?

The top performers I’ve had the privilege to watch and talk with have all mentioned that they learn best this way. They usually don’t just come out and say it, they talk about it it the general course of our conversation. Which, by the way, is the best way to get someone’s operating patterns. More on that later, though. Back to how they learn best. When I get them talking about where, how and when they learned certain things, it’s almost never from a speaker, in a book or audio program, even. It’s consistently “from so and so” that they job shadowed.

So what does this all mean? It means that if you’re an manager of people or the person managed, find opportunities to job shadow the top performers. If you are a top performer, job shadow others, anyways. Typically, the only difference between middle performers and top performers is either 1. Work Flow Efficiency or 2. Persuasion Effectiveness. Middle performers have great skills, you just have to search for them. When job shadowing with middle performers, top performers now “it” when they see and hear “it.”

Middle performers job shadowing middle performers have a tougher time disseminating effective persuasion effectiveness, but it is still a good idea. They can be thrown off by drive-by successes. Meaning, they fall into the false success hole of thinking something is effective when, more likely than not, it was something else working in their favor. This creates confusion about what truly works and what doesn’t. None the less, though, job shadowing IS the best form of learning for all parties involved.

The National Training Laboratories is (possibly falsely) credited with producing the foremost document stating that teaching each other is the most effective format for learning. The learning pyramid shows the average learning retention rate is 90%! when you teach others. That’s exactly what is happening when you job shadow. You teach them. They teach you through a natural learning process. Learn from others. Would you rather do it the hard way or the easy way?

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Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. -Douglas Adams

Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself. -Eleanor Roosevelt

Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you’ll find one at the end of your arm… As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands. One for helping yourself, the other for helping others. Audrey Hepburn

What really matters is not just our own winning but helping other people to win, too. -Fred Rogers

Photo Credit: Flickr user dkuropatwa