Teach a person to identify a problem and for a lifetime the person will find faults; teach a person to troubleshoot and for a lifetime the person will solve problems
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Some days back, I attended a presentation and it had a quote which said something like ‘If you want to teach someone how to sail, instill in him a hunger to conquer the seas’.
That’s really got me thinking and now that you have mentioned about teaching/training, some thoughts on that. This might be a longer comment:
Lot of time, in IT, I have wondered how do I get my people to work better? I mean how can I get a developer to write better code, how can I get a tester to test better and smarter and most importantly, how do I get my project leader(s) to really ‘lead’ the project?
To address these questions, typically, I would arrange for training. Developers would be trained in their technology, testers would be trained in the methodology, the project leaders would be trained in project management techniques and general leadership.
However, this hasn’t always had the desired effect. The improvements have been slow and marginal and sometimes even counter-productive! So, the questions largely remain unsolved.
I happened to attend the presentation while I was trying to solve these questions and that’s why the quote that I mentioned in the beginning struck me. Our training is generally too specific to the job. We don’t instill a hunger, a passion in our people to do their job the best that they can. I am not sure how this can be done but I think once this is done, the people themselves would find ways of doing things in a better way. And of course, only after that, the specific trainings would help them!
Vishvesh: That is one big comment on my blog of one line
. I completely agree with what you are facing and this is the same that each one of faces when we have subordinates who are not working to the level expected. The spark and so the hunger is dependent on the person’s attitude. Training may help show a path but finally it is the trainee who has to decide and walk the path. Getting training is an event, but understanding and using what is learnt is an achievement. Not many people realize this.
Training helps in some form or the other. Many times, people understand and know much more than they show. There is something which stops them for letting themselves get involved to the level which shows them as self driven. Is it fear of getting into something and not able to reverse it or is it added responsibility the next time around? There may be more questions but again, what drives ones decision is what one wants in life. Once that is clear, there will be impetus from the person’s side to do good and still work towards bettering the good. That is when the person starts evolving faster.
All above sounds nice, and maybe that works in countries with high economic …However, that becomes complicated in case you need to fight for the right to be on a daily base.
What we need is the love. The love is all we have and the fruits of the love are our being alive till now in spite of everything is againsnt us.
threestrongcoffees
For me,
>> Teach a person to identify a problem and for a lifetime the person will find other’s faults…
Tomas: When things are really against us, there is hardly any time for us to sit back and think. It would be important to sustain ourselves.
DSvT: lol
but is not problem identification the first step in solving it?
Dharma: Yes it is. But some people think that identification of the problem is a victory and others should take care of solving it because they were smart enough to find the problem.