One of the business coaching things that Clay talked about this week is how important role-playing is when training. We have to assume that when we are teaching somebody how to do something, they do not understand what we are saying or the checklist that we’ve created for them. Oftentimes people will start their new job sit down in front of a computer and watch eight hours of how-to videos from the 1980s. I bet there are a few people out there who learn well through this process but I am sure that that number is very small. The way that most people learn is by actually doing it because they can actually create neural pathways while doing the task.
The act of role-playing in business coaching is incredibly important because it creates neural pathways in your brain.
While checklists systems and processes are all very important and much needed, the act of role-playing in business coaching is incredibly important because it creates neural pathways in your brain. When you do the same thing over and over and over again, you start to begin forming these habits. A lot of people have a difficult time learning simply off of a video because they are not able to get their hands dirty and actually do The task.Â
Another reason why role-playing and hands-on training is so important is that you can get instant feedback and correction to the employee. When you were able to get back in correction to the employee, they are able to correct themselves before they start forming bad habits. Do you want to catch these habits before they start to be formed? Ensuring that your team creates good habits is vitally important so that you can provide a quality level of service to all of your customers.
Do you want your staff to be able to show you that they understand how to do it. This doesn’t mean that they have to be perfect before you send them out to the field but they should have a great understanding of how your system works. Once they feel fairly confident, they should start doing jobs for you so that they can get their hands dirty and actually begin learning. It’s important to not put your customers in harm’s way while doing this but you also want to ensure that you were a staff member can get great hands-on experiences.
It is always great to have Systems, processes, and checklists, but you do not want to forget about the hands-on role-playing that is required to teach staff anything new. Scheduling a weekly training session will help boost their learning curve and get them there faster. Schedule your weekly team meeting to start the ball rolling and get in a great flow of training. If you do not start now, your team will begin to form bad habits and neural pathways. Get ahead of the game and start role-playing now.
