The Art of Figuring It Out

I’m just going to start at my sticking point for this week’s post. Inevitably, when putting together the outlines for these posts, there’s a point at which I get stuck. That sticking point can be with how I want to frame the message and lesson, it can be picking the story I want to tell to illustrate my theme, or it can be how I want to bridge the main topic to myself and the audience. Once I sit down to outline the post, somewhere, there’s a place that I get stuck. This week, I got stuck on where to go with workflow learning.

Maybe it’s such a sticking point because it goes by so many different names: workflow learning has also been called just-in-time learning, on-demand learning, and basically everything related to seeking out solutions for a problem right when you need the solution to the problem. So, I guess it could have been too broad of a term to easily find a compelling and clear angle to discuss it, but, I have to also point out that you’re currently listening to the finished product of this week’s episode. At some point I clearly became unstuck and figured out how to put together at least a fully formed post. I don’t dare be my own critic as to whether or not this will be a high-quality post. That’s for you all to decide. But my point in bringing up my sticking point is that I got to my sticking point, and then I figured it out. I started the process of producing something, came to a challenge, then learned and implemented a solution while in the flow of my work.

How did I do that? What was my secret sauce in moving from not being able to really start recording this episode to flushing out a coherent intro, lesson, and takeaway on workflow learning?

Well, I did it the same way I try to gather information on any problem I’m trying to solve. I Googled it.

Here’s a great word for today: Googleification. Here’s what I mean by Googleification and why it’s important in work and performance.

Let’s say you and your friend both purchased the same outdoor grill, and it requires some assembly before throwing some steaks on there. You’re halfway through assembly and you’re struggling to fit a screw where it needs to go. You then spend the next 3 hours re-reading the manual (yes, it’s the right screw for the right part), calling the manufacturer (you hang up after 45 minutes on hold), and seeing if somehow another type of screw will fit (It won’t). Finally, as you’re about to give up for the day, you call your friend, who asks you how the grill is looking. You frustratedly say that it’s looking terrible and ask how the heck they got their’s assembled with the stupid screw issue. They respond, “Ohh, when I was struggling with that part I just Googled it and the first hit was a forum explaining how to heat up the screw to make it fit perfectly. It slowed me down by 5 minutes.”

By the way, this broken screw story is a real case study.

The lesson here is not that the manual or customer service line is not needed. It’s that Google has revolutionized how we search for answers to our specific questions, and there are 3 qualities that we can borrow from Google when it comes to providing access to information. And, coincidentally, these elements are the pillars of workflow learning.

Number one: Immediacy. Google embodies workflow learning because when you have something that you want to know right now, you can get an answer RIGHT NOW. You don’t need to wait to see if your question is answered, because there’s no lag in waiting for the answer. You have a question or problem, and you can immediately go about trying to solve it. Now, theoretically you can do this anyway, but it’s a little bit more of a stab in the dark in terms of quality of the solution. With the right search terms, you can often find out how to solve YOUR problem.

Number Two: Relevancy. Finding quick answers is not helpful if those answers have nothing to do with our problem. If we need a quick reminder or some useful tip in that moment, it better be relevant to our needs, otherwise we won’t trust that source of information in the future. This is of course where Google shines. It not only gets you information quickly, it ranks its relevance, at least to our search terms. Again, you need to know what you’re asking for, but if your query is answered quickly, presumably you were provided relevant solutions.

Number Three: Applicability. If we are searching for help with a problem, can we actually use the answers we’re given? That’s the importance of applicability. If Google told us that they had a solution to our screw problem, and all you needed to do was smelt your own screws, that might be a quick answer and relevant solution, but it’s hard to say it’s applicable to the situation. That answer isn’t actually able to be applied to the situation, so it wouldn’t really help. Workflow learning solutions work when they can be used right away.

There are so many lessons that can be taken from the concept of workflow learning and applied to really any form of teaching, but I want to give you all something that is immediate, relevant, and applicable to conclude this episode. So, here are today’s actionable takeaways:

One: Help your people figure out how to figure things out. As helpful as having the knowledge of the world at our fingertips can be, if learners have no idea where to start and no idea how to determine if information is relevant to them, then they’ll be just as lost as when they started, if not dangerously misinformed. Asking the right questions and using the most helpful sources of information is a skill that can be applied anywhere! Google can do many things, but it can’t ask better questions for us, at least not yet.

Two: Become the verb. What do I mean by that? Become the Google of your subject. And I don’t mean collect everyone’s data. That’s a whole other topic. I mean build up so much trust within your group that you are the information source people flock to when they have a problem that they need to solve. How do you do that? Work on providing answers that are immediate, relevant, and applicable to the problem facing the people you’re serving. It might take some time to build that reputation, but word will spread that you’re the go to source for helpful answers.

And finally, remember, if someone comes to you with a challenge and you really don’t have a good answer for them in that moment, just admit you’re human and say “I don’t know. Let me Google that for you.”