Marla Tabaka, president of LifeMap Coaching, shares this wonderful story of how changing learning styles led to success for a struggling employee–
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You’ve hired an employee who seems to possess all of the necessary qualities to perform the job, yet there are some things he just doesn’t get. Sound familiar? He’s smart enough; he wants to learn. Yet, somehow he doesn’t use the database in the way it’s intended. Or the follow up tasks that she’s been assigned inspire her to ask redundant, and sometimes irrelevant, questions. You ask yourself, “could I have been this off target when I hired this person?”

Not necessarily. Your instincts probably told you that this is the right person for the job, and if you’re a seasoned veteran, those instincts are usually right. It might be a simple case of mismatched learning/communication modalities. Here’s an example of how this mismatch between you (or the trainer) and the new employee can lead to a frustrating and costly outcome.

Last week, a client complained that her new medical assistant could not comprehend how to perform data entry in their patient-tracking software system. She’s picked up on everything else in the office very quickly and yet this simple input boggled her mind. My client was getting impatient, and frankly, very close to letting go of this gem of an employee – what could have been a costly mistake.

“Whoa! Hold on,” I said. “Perhaps she needs to learn in different way.” I had briefly spoken to Ruth, this new employee, and could identify her as a visual learner. My client was showing Ruth the input procedure by having her add patient information directly into computer. “Visual enough,” you might say, but not really. Computer input is a very kinesthetic (learn by doing) process.

I suggested to the client that she offer Ruth the option of reading the manual and printing off screen shots so she could transcribe notes directly onto them. Bingo! You see, Ruth couldn’t learn this task by doing, she had to learn it by reading, committing bits of it to memory and then doing. It took only a few days before Ruth got it!

This little tweak in the system saved my client months of searching, interviewing and retraining another Medical Assistant – and it saved Ruth her job.

So, how do we identify someone’s learning/communication style? In the world of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) we call this the Representational System and there are many in-depth ways to identify it. Let’s take a look at some very basic methods – one being, to simply ask. Most adults understand how they best learn, whether it’s by listening (auditory), doing – or hands-on (kinesthetic), or by watching (visual).

Another way to identify someone’s learning style is to listen and watch how they best communicate; both non-verbally and verbally. If the person likes to dress for comfort, uses a lot of hand gestures, and uses phrases like; “my gut tells me,” or “I feel it in my heart” then they are most likely primarily kinesthetic. They have to feel “it”. This person will learn by repetitive action – by doing.

A visual learner will dress for the eyes, or to make some kind of a statement, will often gaze off to visualize the affect of what you, or they, are saying, and will use phrases like, “I see what you mean,” or “when you look at it that way.” This person has to picture “it” and will most likely learn best by reading and watching before doing.

An auditory learner will not necessarily discern themselves by the way they dress, but may be more conservative in the clothes they choose. He will use statements like, “I hear you,” or “it sounds fine to me.” This person will most likely want to hear the information from you or another resource more than once to learn it best. They may need to repeat it back to themselves to really process it and may even talk out loud as they’re working.

This is a very basic look at identifying Representational Systems. But it’s quick and easy and most often very effective. In the worse case scenario, try a couple of different teaching methods when you are training someone. You’ll hit on the right one and then YOU will get it!

For more information on NLP and Mapping Representational Systems for better learning and communicating, I highly recommend “Magic of NLP Demystified – A Pragmatic Guide to Communication & Change” by Byron Lewis and Frank Pucelik.
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Thanks, Marla! Marla herself does an amazing job of using these concepts to guide entrepreneurs and employees working for companies of every size. Sometimes we become so focused on what we need to know, we need a coach to remind us how we need to know.

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