Improving Safety By Improving Teaching

When you look at the parts in a hydraulics system, you know that they all do different jobs.?

And between individual systems you’ll have fittings and hoses that are different sizes and lengths to do different jobs.?

And we don’t expect everything to remain the same every time we work on a system.?

So why do we treat our team members and colleagues like they should all be the same??

Work the same.?

Learn the same.?

Understand everything the same way.

Studies have repeatedly shown that we all acquire skills differently. And even still, there are different levels of skill acquisition.?

So first let’s have a look at the different ways skills are acquired and how we can support each type of learner.?

Visual

Visual learners tend to do the best with textbook learning. They learn best through words and diagrams. Incorporating worksheets, workbooks, and models helps these learners the most. That’s why we also create workbooks for each cohort that comes through our doors.?

Auditory?

These learners need things explained to them outloud. They thrive in lecture style teaching methods, or by watching videos that talk them through a problem and solution. This is why we always have our trainers explain each step of a process out loud to complement other learning materials. It’s also why we offer video calls with our trainers when people are completing blended or self-paced learning.?

Linguistic

These learners learn best when they write things down. Once again workbooks can come in handy here as they use their own words to describe a problem and its solutions.?

Kinesthetic

These people learn best by doing, and need someone walking them through it step by step. This is why we always include practical components in what we teach, as many tradies fall into this category. Sometimes they may have a harder time picking up theory but will be able to work really well on the actual machines.?

Which of these categories does your team most fit into? When helping them as their manager are you teaching them in a way that they learn best??

The other thing to consider after you’ve taught your team how to do something is that there are different levels of skill acquisition.?

And for most people they won’t be confident in a skill until they’ve done it multiple times so what can you do to support as a leader.?

1. Be ready for questions, and encourage question asking.?
2. Team your newer team members up with someone more experienced
3. Talk to your team about their career plans and get them the relevant training early.

If this seems like a lot to handle by yourself, contact our team as a huge part of what we do is getting teams ready to operate efficiently and safely on site.?

Because providing your team with the right information in the right way is what helps keep them safe on site.