Dr. Gayle Carson, CSP, CPCM
President, Carson Research Center

In helping others realize their greatest potential and productivity, you, the manager, must understand how people learn. Managers need to set a climate for learning, first by understanding what the learning process is, and second, by understanding what fosters the process.

It's been proven that reinforcement through repetition is an important factor in learning. After delivering the instructions, summarize them. (Repeat, repeat, repeat!) Find out how well the employee understood the instructions by asking him to repeat them. You'll learn that what the employee heard isn't necessarily what you told him. He adapts what you said in light of what is going on in his mind, his emotional state, and outside distractions. You may have to repeat some instructions again.

Ideally, instructions should be repeated six times, on the average, since people often do not hear all instructions the first few times. This does not mean that instructions should be delivered in the same manner for each repetition. Rather, after giving instructions verbally, you, could follow up with a memo, then reinforce your wishes with something graphic or a demonstration.

It is important to control the time lapse between the issuing of instructions and when the task will be performed. Studies show that 98% of an audience will forget instructions within 16 days if the instructions aren't reissued or reinforced with the activity. Therefore, if your employee is given instructions he doesn't use for a long time, don't expect him to remember what he was told. Make it a habit to give instructions only when they'll be followed closely and reinforced by the activity.

People, by nature, learn by association. If an employee realizes that the task he is performing has a related benefit and an end product, he will associate the task with the entire process, and the task then will make more sense to him. Viewed "in context," the task will perceived as a more valuable responsibility.

One step in ensuring that instructions are learned and responsibilities are carried out is to communicate your expectations to the employee. Tell him why the task is being performed, and delineate deadlines and expected results. You must let the employee know where he stands.

In delineating step-by-step instructions, use a pert chart, a managerial tool that helps to ensure your giving complete instructions. To construct a pert chart, you determine the final result, then work backwards, step by step, task by task. This forces you, the delegator, to think carefully about each step in the process. If you merely were to describe the task from beginning to end, your familiarity with it might cause you to leave out a step.

Active Listening

Most people are not skilled listeners, and one of the reasons we find it so difficult to listen is that we normally speak at the rate of 100 to 125 words per minute even though we usually listen at the rate of 400 to 600 words per minute. Although we spend 65% of our life listening, because of the natural discrepancy between our rates of listening and speech, people rarely listen "actively." Active listening takes place when each participant in a discussion registers what is being said. When you give your employee instructions, look for signs that he is listening actively—he should maintain eye contact and voice echo phrases or phrases of acknowledgment ("Yes, I understand"). To encourage active listening you, too, must participate actively in the communication by giving your employee your full concentration while issuing instructions.

It is very important to follow up the issuing of instructions and the ensuing accomplishments with constructive criticism that will let an employee know how well a task was performed. The criticism is constructive only if we explain to the worker what he did wrong, how to do it right, and why a task is performed a certain way.

Coach or Counselor

All people go through their different parent/adult/child states, and it's easiest to communicate with others if you and the other person are in the same state. If a manager says, "I would like the report by this afternoon because Mr. Jones will be stopping in," (adult), and the employee reacts by stomping his feet, holding his breath and turning blue (guess which state), you have a rocky situation. However, if the employee responds by saying, "I'd like to do that, but project A is a priority," he is responding from the adult state, and that is conducive to effective communication.

When a manager approaches an employee l from his critical parent state, which we all have a tendency to do, the employee most often will react from a defensive child state. For example, if a judgmental parent/ manager says, "Why didn't you get that report done like I told you?," the employee is pressured to respond defensively from the child state, saying, "because you didn't tell me to get it done." In this stand-off, communication breaks down. Managers therefore should avoid cornering their employees into a defensive posture.

Coach or Counselor?

As a manager you must be involved with either coaching or counseling. Coaching entails instructing solely, whereas counseling goes one step further by analyzing why the task isn't being done. Counseling isn't only one encounter—it's a follow-up system. The first few encounters may get to the cause of the problem, but subsequent meetings are needed to find solutions. The manager who feels he must stick to coaching, having neither the time nor inclination for counseling, must be careful to properly match personality types with compatible tasks.

The manager who succeeds as a counselor, however, needs to recognize a symptom for what it is a symptom, not a problem. For example, consider a worker whose productivity is sporadic. When he produces, he does well; however, he is unproductive for long periods. This is a symptom, not the problem. It's the counselor/manager's job to sit down, actively listen and find out what problem is causing the symptom.

The manager who is a successful counselor helps his employees achieve their greatest potential, while reaping the greatest benefits from their talents. Such an individual analyzes the employee's personality type and the ego level on which he operates. The manager also takes advantage of factors that foster learning: repetition of instructions. creating a predictable, stable environment, a short lapse between instruction and activity, and learning by association. No one becomes an effective counselor/manager overnight; each individual, including the counselor/manager, must go through his own learning process. (This article is based upon a presentation given in San Francisco in December 1983 at the Professional Education Conference of Meeting Planners International.)

How we issue instructions and follow them up certainly is central to the learning process, but it's also important to foster an environment that's conducive to learning. Such an environment is disciplined and predictable, and it is developed by a manager who sets standards of behavior both for himself and the employees. Management also must be consistent in doling out awards or discipline. Every employee who makes a mistake should be meted out the same discipline on a timely basis. This, again, helps employees know what to expect, and to acknowledge that they are receiving fair, impartial treatment.

Personality Types

Although general rules of learning apply to everyone, they do not take into account why different people react in different ways to the same situation. To develop this understanding, the manager should become aware of personality types since this knowledge can be used as a tool for predicting employee behavior and for making compatible matches between people and responsibilities. For example, a bright creative person who takes initiative needs a wide variety of challenging tasks. He isn't the type of individual you'd assign an eight-hour stapling and collating job.

Let's consider four main types of personalities. Type A is the boss who is a born delegator, but not much of a doer. Type B is outgoing, likes to talk and be highly visible, and enjoys meetings, but hates to sit behind a desk all day. He can sell anything, but if asked to write a formal report to explain his accomplishments, he's at a loss.

Type C is the team player. He's the peacemaker, the office arbitrator who won't rock the boat. He is an astute people watcher and would be great in personnel. Type D is analytical and will not make a move without 42 pages of documentation. It is not realistic to ask a D to do something in a hurry.

To complicate matters, most people are blends of these personality types; also, everyone is capable of temporarily crossing over to another personality type, when necessary. For example, let's assume that your employee is naturally a B. By nature he hates paperwork and is not analytical; however, to finish a report, he had to be organized and analytical and therefore became a D temporarily. Yet if he were assigned a long-term task that required his crossing over to another personality state and abandoning his B nature for an indefinite period, he would experience a lot of stress and would burn out. Being an A, C or D isn't natural for him, but he can do it in a pinch.

What does all this mean to you, the manager? When we hire people we unfortunately tend to choose those of our own personality type. This is counterproductive since most organizations have a variety of tasks to be done, and therefore need a mix of the major personality traits. An effective team usually has a core composed of one representative of each major personality type. It is management's responsibility to match the personality type to the task—if you assign a D task to a B personality, you will not reap the maximum benefits from your employee's talents. Also, an employee who is assigned an inappropriate task will not be motivated since he perceives the goal of the task as yours, not his.

Ego States

Another factor to consider in the learning process is the level at which a personality is functioning. According to the transactional analysis school of thought, we all have three ego states or levels: the parent, the child, and the adult. The parent state tells us what we should and shouldn't do; it's what we've been taught and indoctrinated with. The critical parent cries, "Why did you do it that way?"; the nurturing parent says, "I understand why you did it that way." The child state is composed of the adapting child ("Yes, I'll do that") and the rebellious child ("No, I won't do it!"). The adult state is the level on which managers should try to communicate. The adult state is non-judgmental and non-emotional. It's analytical, straight to the point, and factual.

About the author: Dr. Gayle Carson is known throughout the world as an expert on turning quality and excellence into increased profits. Her successful record as a business leader, educator, entrepreneur and multi-million dollar real estate investor, shows she knows and understands small and large businesses and helps them profit from emerging trends in the business arena throughout the world. An acknowledged expert on business trends of the nineties and beyond, she is a good resource for TQM, customer service, leadership and excellence. Please click here to request further information on Dr. Carson.

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