Types of help

I sometimes try to think of the levels of help I give to a client – this equally applies to management assisting their staff. For the sake of a simple example, let us think of helping a child to tie their shoelace.

Level 1 – Do it for them.

Simply tie the child’s shoelace. They learn that it can be done, but not how to do it.

Level 2 – Show them how to do it.

Tie the shoelace but go slow and describe how to do it. They learn how to do it but by demonstration only.

Level 3 – Teach them how to do it.

Show them, describe it, let them try, correct them when they err until they can do it for themselves. They learn how to do it by demonstration, trial and error and being corrected.

Level 4 – Teach them how to solve similar problems.

Don’t teach them to tie the lace but give them skills to approach those type of problems. This could involve analysis (a tied lace has two loops, how might they get there?) and reasoning. They gain skill to enable them to solve similar problems in the future (how to tie a bow tie – which I still can’t do right!).

Level 5 – Show them how to apply the above to others.

This is showing them how to be like you. The most powerful level since you have moved on extra level away in that they are passing on the skills that you practised on them.

The point is not that you should always strive to be at Level 5, more that you should know when to use the level that is most appropriate to the situation. Usually you will start at the lower levels and work your way up but it is not a linear progression.

From management point of view (or mine when I work with a client) if we don’t get to level 5 at all, then the staff haven’t been taught how to pass knowledge on and so any intervention will necessarily wither and die eventually.

Best,

Rob