RE: Employee experience dilemma....

[Paul Hanson <PHanson -at- Quintrex -dot- com>]

> --- Andrew Plato <intrepid_es -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:
> The only way this person will ever learn anything is if she makes
> mistakes. 
> 
	Chris Hamilton [SMTP:cah_91 -at- yahoo -dot- com] wrote: 
> IMO, you don't teach someone by setting them up for failure. You teach
> them by setting them up for success and providing controls along the
> way to catch and correct the mistakes.
> 
	I ask:
	How did you learn to ride a bike? Did someone hold on to the
bike every moment you were learning? Did you not fall *at least* once
and scrape a knee or elbow? Apply this to theory to tech comm. You
*probably* do not employ the same design theories to the last help you
wrote that you used on the first help you ever wrote. You also probably
write better now v. then. Why? Because you learned and made mistakes. I
think the point is you *do* learn by making mistakes. The first time you
type the command to re-format your hard drive is likely to be the last,
if you do so by mistake. You learn that to do so is a mistake as
everything on your C:\ drive is gone. Should Lisa's co-workers use
training wheels? Yes, no one ever said they shouldn't. The training
wheels are the controls to catch and correct the mistakes. But getting
on the bike is the first step and undertaking a brand new manual is
getting on.

	Paul