Week 45
Short notes today because I missed this week by quite some margin.
I ran an iteration of that technical training I designed. This time it was the same duration, but with more content (the missing pieces). I simplified the exercises so was confident I’d be able to get it done in 3 hours. And I did. But it didn’t work as well. Reflection: the scrappier session, where there was less content on slides, and more people diagramming on paper, worked better for people. They understood it more quickly - because they were sketching and testing their understanding, rather than passively consuming what I was saying (before being asked to do some exercises). Also - the additional content had a completely different structure to what had come before. It was entirely driven by the content (it wasn’t a design choice), but the switch really threw people. By the time we reached 3.30 (and yes, I know not to run challenging sessions late afternoon), some people looked like they were in pain.
I made the mistake of agreeing to run the training on a day where I wouldn’t be able to travel up the day before. London to Newcastle and back, with a full day of training and meetings, is just painful. That’s not even including the journey from home to London, and the unreliable train connections very early morning/late night. Reflection: this left me absolutely shattered on Friday. I think I might even have collapsed on the bed and fallen asleep in my clothes. I had been working four days a week to create some breathing space for myself, to give more time for self-care, to make progress on my book, to have time for reflection. The fact that these weeknotes are three weeks late tells you how well that has been going.
I’ve been watching who picks up things quickly in the training, and who doesn’t. A few patterns: folks who work with spreadsheets or told me they’d science/maths backgrounds tend to feel more comfortable with it; the smokers chose to work as a team and were really good at communicating/dividing up the labour; people in more technical roles tended to spot the patterns in the rules; and people who were able to focus in the session (able to literally disconnect from their inboxes and DMs - and able to cognitively switch off from that day’s crisis). Reflection: I need to spend more time thinking about how to make it easier for people who don’t fall into these categories. Clearly the technical nature of the content is a major constraint - but I reckon I can still do better. Especially since the folks who most need the training have been hired for their people skills, and don’t necessarily have more technical backgrounds. This learning needs to be more accessible.