More on learning styles: why, what, how, what if?
The other issue to keep in mind when looking at the best ways to get people ramped up is whether they are a “why,” “what,” “how does it work,” or “what if” learner.
There’s a whole chapter devoted to this in Teach What You Know, by Steve Trautman, which is a wonderful book all about teaching peers and people you are mentoring what they need to know to do a good job.
The entire book is full of gems - my copy currently has about 20 pages bookmarked. If you ever do mentoring or any kind of informal training, I recommend it highly. He’s also got an excellent website at www.practicalleader.com.
Here’s the short version of the chapter on learning styles…
“Why” learners
“Why” learners wants to know why they should care - why they should be learning this, why it is important, why focus on it now. So start your explanation with this.
Learning styles: visual, auditory, kinesthetic
When you are working with a freelancer, one of the critical issues you need to deal with is getting them
ramped up as quickly and effectively as possible.
They need to learn about your company, your products and services, and the way you want work done.
If you can find out how they learn best, and teach them [...]
