Leaders intuitively know that giving team members too much direction or process can stunt their development. People learn best and make more strides when they must figure out on their own how to succeed with a given task or deliverable.
On occasion, good leaders give team members nothing more than a desired outcome, goal, or strategy and ask them to perform or execute within a safety net of support. When learning is the primary objective and mistakes aren’t viewed negatively, team members take risks, experiment, and gain the confidence to learn and grow.
Adding an After-Action-Review, where leaders and team members discuss what went well and what needs to be improved, is a best practice many good leaders utilize to further accelerate this learning process.
Another approach to take to advance learning is sometimes called a Double Demonstration. This is when leaders ask a team member to execute on a task or assignment without much direction and to keep their end product or solution to themselves for a time. Then the leader tackles the same task or assignment and produces an independent deliverable or outcome. The two parties then compare the work products and discuss why and how they produced what they did.
This Double Demonstration often turbo-charges learning in a way nothing else can. Exploring the contrast of strategy, tactics, and approach opens eyes and minds. Both parties usually gain incredible insight by articulating the assumptions relied upon and the choices made.
It is not uncommon for a team member to finally understand what has been holding them back in creating better outcomes. They learn quickly from examining the differences and similarities apparent in the Double Demonstration.
Of course, the use of this learning process depends on the self-confidence of the leader to produce a superior end result. Leaders who fear exposing themselves as less skilled or experienced than they try to project will likely decline employing a Double Demonstration. But for those with talent, skill, and self-confidence, this approach is worth exploring.
By definition, high performance is a demonstration of skill. When a more experienced leader is willing to humbly compare and contrast their skill to those of others, they show them a path forward that otherwise remains hidden from view. Exposing the assumptions, choices, and strategies of high performance is a lens into learning like none other. Are you ready for a Double Demonstration?
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