We all know things. Some things we know very, very well, and other things we know just a bit well, but we all know things.
Experts are those who know an awful lot and have a very specific and advanced skill set. A lot of the time when trying to solve problems, we need experts to help us, like IT Engineers, Accountants or Mechanics. And that’s a good idea, because experts are very effective at solving problems.
And when we are trying to learn things, we might ask an expert to teach us. But that’s a bad idea, and here is why.
The Curse of Knowledge
Just last night, I bought a shiny new Wi-Fi router for our home to help speed up our internet connection. The installation went very smooth, and I started to enjoy much faster internet on my laptop. But a few minutes later my father-in-law came up to me and said, “The internet isn’t working” and handed me his phone.
I took one look, noticed his phone wasn’t connected to the new Wi-Fi router, and said to him “I’ve replaced the router, so you need to connect to the new Wi-Fi connection.” He stared at me blankly for a few seconds and then said; “What’s Wi-Fi?”.
Although I do not consider myself an IT expert, my level of IT expertise is obviously far higher than my father-in-law’s. I know what Wi-Fi is and he doesn’t. And when there is such a gap in levels of expertise, it becomes very, very hard to transfer that expertise.
Experts have a very advanced level of knowledge about their subject. They understand numerous concepts related to their subject, and can play mental gymnastics with these concepts, whereas non-experts may not even be aware that those concepts exist.
Earlier in this book I talked about the pyramid of understanding, and looking at this model, experts play up in the clouds in the conceptual level, whereas non-experts at most are standing on the ideas level.
Experts play mental gymnastics with concepts. They take packages of concepts, and work with them collectively. They are so used to playing mental gymnastics with packages of concepts that they sometimes don’t even remember what the individual concepts are that make up those packages. And as a result, when they try to explain their subject to a beginner like you or me, they forget the basics, and start so high up in the clouds that we can’t keep up with them.
Experts play happily above the clouds, whereas non-experts can only look up from the ground without being able to see through the clouds. As a result, expertise alone is not enough to teach.
Teaching Needs Awareness
My wife is an exceptional cook. She is capable of going to any restaurant, taking one taste of the food, then going home and cooking exactly the same food. Thanks to her, I am able to enjoy Chinese food, Sushi, a British fry up or even a Mexican Burrito whenever I feel like it. My wife is an expert in the kitchen.
But whenever she asks me to cook something, and gives me instructions, it is a disaster. There is always something I end up missing, like letting the water boil before adding the dumplings, or adding a dash of salt here or unwrapping the kitchen foil for the last 5 minutes in the oven.
The reason my wife struggles to get me to follow her instructions is because for her, lots of these steps are automatic. She’s so good at them she’s completely forgotten she does them. She lacks awareness of them. If she wanted to train me to become a cook then she’d actually have to think very hard about how she does things, and even consciously observe herself in the process.
Our brains sacrifice awareness for efficiency. If my wife had to think hard for every step she took in the kitchen, she’d be slow and clumsy. Automating these steps frees up cognitive energy, allowing her to apply that cognitive energy to being creative. And creative she is. She is always creating new fusion dishes, or new ways of cooking old dishes with a fresh new taste.
Something you are probably very familiar with is how to use a map app on your smartphone. If I asked you to explain how to use the map app to find the nearest bus stop to an elderly grandparent who had just bought their first smartphone, then you would probably struggle. You would probably have to watch yourself do it first to remind yourself the exact procedure and all of the steps. Only then would you be able to explain it effectively to your grandparent.
Observe Yourself
You don’t need a PhD to teach others, nor do you need 30 years of experience, or a Nobel Prize. But what you do need is an awareness of how to do things.
So I have a challenge for you…
Let’s take the example of using a map app on your smartphone to find your way to the nearest bus stop. Imagine having to teach this to an elderly grandparent who had just bought their first smartphone. Keep in mind that many things you do automatically would probably be challenging for them. Now try to list all of the steps you would need to teach to them, starting from when you open the map app. See how many steps you can list.
Here are my answers, using Google Maps on my iPhone:
1. Look for the words “Search here…”or “Try petrol stations, cash” at the top of your screen
2. Us your finger to tap where those words
3. Now a keyboard will appear, use your fingers to type the words “Bus stop”
4. Tap the blue “search” button in the bottom right hand corner of the screen
5. Now a list of bus stops will appear in the bottom half of the screen, look for the one at the top of the list
6. Now look for the white arrow in a blue diamond to the right hand side of that and use your finger to tap it
7. Now in the top fifth of the screen, you will see two bars, one at the top saying “Your location” and one underneath it with the name of the bus stop. Look underneath those two bars and you will see icons for different modes of transport.
8. Use your finger to tap the mode of transport you want (e.g. if you want to drive there then tap the car icon)
9. Now in the bottom fifth of the screen, you will see a blue button with the word “Start” and an upwards pointing white arrow. Tap that.
10. A prompt will appear saying “Welcome to Google Maps navigation – Don’t forget to pay attention to your surroundings and always over the law. These terms apply.” Tap the blue OK button just beneath it.
11. Now follow the instructions your phone says to you.
11 steps! For something that I can do without thinking. That’s a lot of steps I’ve mastered. But for a non-expert, each one of those steps could be a challenge. And if I were to teach these steps to them, I’d have to go one step at a time, and may even need to explain a bit more detail about each step before they felt ready to move on to the next step.
I sometimes challenge people in my training to do the above exercise. One of the things they realise from this is that you also need to be incredibly patient to teach others! Whilst you may be desperate for them to get to the end of the process, they can only move at their own pace. We need to wait for them to digest each step before moving on.
If you’re a manager, then there are probably things that you’re good at that your team members aren’t. Things like managing your time, having difficult conversations or handling customer requests. But just because you’re good at those, doesn’t mean you can train others how to do those. Telling people things like “Be more organised”, “You’ve got to be more direct”, or “Listen to the customer’s needs” are too vague and difficult to act on.
If you want to help upskill your team members then you need to pay attention to how you actually do things. What are the steps you follow to be more organised? How do you phrase things directly as opposed to indirectly? What is your thinking process when listening to customer’s needs?
Observe yourself in action. Aim to list all of the steps you follow. Then try explaining those steps to someone else and see if they can follow them and get the same result. If they can then that’s great. And if they can’t, then that’s fine. Learn where their misunderstandings are, then go back, observe yourself in action again and try to find the missing steps. Eventually you’ll find a way of explaining that gets results.
So, the next time you need to teach someone, remember these steps:
- Observe yourself in action
- List the steps
- Explain those steps to them
- Check their understanding
- Adapt your explanation where necessary
