Anytime we practice a task that is too difficult for us, learning and performance both suffer. Interestingly, a task that is too easy compared to our skill level stunts learning and improvement, as well. The key is finding a challenge that stretches us at just the right level of demanding. A nudge higher than our current skills. It is these challenges that enable deep learning and long-term performance gains.
I've noticed whenever we introduce a new tool or process to the team, they will take what they know today and try and fit it in to the new. We've introduced two new design/development tools that have much different functionality compared to our existing tools. We held a train-the-trainer session with everyone to go over the basic functionality of each tool, features and benefits, and how we can use them in addition to our existing toolset. But when I reviewed the first couple of projects my teams produced with the new tools, they were just bad copies of the old ways. We're solving this by expanding the review sessions from two people to a cross-team session of four or five. We review the current project and make recommendations for the trainer to try/do in their next project (not to make major changes to the current project - but one or two things to try out on their next project). It seems to be working. Today's post gets to the root cause of the problem - people don't yet have the skills to take full advantage of the new technology - it takes time and lots of opportunities for practice. Fortunately, we're never short on new content requests, but we have to break the cycle of doing what we already know and push ourselves to get a little better with each new project.
I've noticed whenever we introduce a new tool or process to the team, they will take what they know today and try and fit it in to the new. We've introduced two new design/development tools that have much different functionality compared to our existing tools. We held a train-the-trainer session with everyone to go over the basic functionality of each tool, features and benefits, and how we can use them in addition to our existing toolset. But when I reviewed the first couple of projects my teams produced with the new tools, they were just bad copies of the old ways. We're solving this by expanding the review sessions from two people to a cross-team session of four or five. We review the current project and make recommendations for the trainer to try/do in their next project (not to make major changes to the current project - but one or two things to try out on their next project). It seems to be working. Today's post gets to the root cause of the problem - people don't yet have the skills to take full advantage of the new technology - it takes time and lots of opportunities for practice. Fortunately, we're never short on new content requests, but we have to break the cycle of doing what we already know and push ourselves to get a little better with each new project.