Asked and Answered: Teaching Troubleshooting and Problem Solving
Asked: In a training situation, how can I develop critical thinkers who can trouble shoot and problem solve without boring the heck out of them?
Answered: This is a great question that many people face in industrial settings. It sounds like the goal is really to get people to think differently about their work and to take initiative as issues/concerns arise. Here are a few recommendations of how you might consider proceeding:
Define your objectives: In as precise terms as you can, write out the knowledge/skill/attitude objectives that you are hoping to address. Do they currently have the knowledge to be successful? Do they currently have the skills to apply that knowledge? Do they have the right attitudinal understanding to help them meet your goals? Once you have this, the creation of a participant-centered experience is much easier.
Match Learning Activities to your objectives: Here are a few ways to approach your content for different objective types.
Knowledge: Give participants a grid with one column listing common “trouble areas.” The other columns can then have various headers, but the rest of the areas will be blank. It could be things like: What causes this? Why is this an issue? What are the long term effects of this issue? Corrective actions? You can then have people work in pairs and take one of the common issues and work through the other column headers to arrive at why things are happening the way they are and what can be done. Participants can then teach this information back to the rest of the group and you can add value as needed to help with clarification. We know that as adults we do not “argue with our own data.” If we can put things into our own words, we often get a better understanding of things and can help ensure that our knowledge is solidified.
Skills: Depending on what your “trouble areas” are, you may want to consider a “find and fix” solution. How this might work is, you could present a group with a simulated work area that has 10 things that are problems/incorrect. You can then have one group identify what those issues are and then the other groups must physically make the changes to ensure safety. This can help you make sure that the appropriate skills and technique are present to make needed changes.
Attitude: There are times when your learners have both the knowledge and skills to be successful but it turns out that they do not want to change or act differently. There are times that this is not a training issue (that is an entirely different conversation), but there are times that we simply need to address an attitude change. In this case, I might consider a peer discussion technique, where a person needs to “convince” the other of the benefits of making changes to address selected “trouble areas.” While attitude changes are a very personal thing, this helps shift the thought process for individuals and helps empower people to make different decisions in the future.
Since I know very little about your content and intent, I hope that these suggestions give you a jumping off place. There are numerous ways to approach this same content and if you are looking for some suggestions or activities, check out our website, which lists books and resources that we regularly use.
Scott Enebo is a training consultant for The Bob Pike Group. If you have training questions you would like to have answered, send them to us at ezineeditor@bobpikegroup.com.
