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The first principle of training is that practice and learning must prepare you for reality. Depending on the stakes and standards involved, this may mean preparing trainees for experiences much worse than they commonly will work with1 or prepare them for the standard expected2.
The next principle is reinforcement. In the absence of a naturally learnt skill like learning to walk, you will have to positively reinforce correct action. Starting like a baby rolling around, trainees should move quickly through this phase into that awkward crawling and trying to walk phase. This phase requires both room for experimentation, fast feedback3 & present support4.
In order to accommodate this fast feedback, it may be necessary to break the skill down into component parts. In complex skills such as customer service where both process knowledge & customer management skills work together, this may mean setting up a single interaction, reviewing the results and coaching them forward… in essense, rather than throw them into the deep end at once and keeping them there, dunk them and take them out. Give them a taste without overwhelming them. By quickly reviewing, you give them a sense of progress, realign their expectations with reality, and challenge them to grow.
Following these stages, once they get to a moderate level of skill, we can then let them practice on a regular basis. Extreme training will include appropriate exposure to challenges. Normal training will include exposure to reality. Both will require trainee-led coaching, with additional support.
It has been said about hypnosis, that there are no unhypnotisable people, only inflexible hypnotists. I believe the same is true of coaching5:
There are no uncoachable people, only inflexible coaches.
There will be rare exceptions, and people outside your level of skill. Putting those aside, starting with this assumption will enable you to adapt to the changing circumstances of every group you meet. Some approaches are far better than others in most situations, but all approaches must be adapted to the reality you find yourself in.
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Some examples of this include the Samaritans and various Military Special Forces (SAS, US Navy Seals etc). ↩
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More examples: Pharmacy is taught by the book, and Surgical Schools will often practice on Cadavers rather than the living. ↩
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For those who know their psychology, positive reinforcement and Operant Conditioning. I focus mainly on the positive side however, for the reasons why read “Don’t Shoot The Dog!” by Karen Pryor. ↩
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My best examples of this might include a good parents reactions to a child’s first words. ↩
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The best and only book I recommend on this topic is “Coaching for Performance” by Sir John Whitmore ↩