Mike Clark's Business Bites: Do you capture knowledge in your company?

Typically it takes three to six months before a new team member is actively productive and contributing. Photo / Unsplash

Did you have a pull-back car as a kid?

One of my favourite analogies to use in business is the pull-back toy car that many of us used to have as kids. I use it to help people understand why best practice can sometimes feel counterintuitive when it comes to training.

Learning a new skill is one of the great frustrations many people experience in their first days, weeks and months in a new job. Typically we are unskilled and inept at what we are being asked to do and/or have used different systems and programs to what our new role requires.

This translates into doing tasks slowly, making mistakes and, very often, beating ourselves up and feeling inadequate and even stupid. We can then project our insecurities in ways that can cause early damage to relationships we are trying to foster and grow.

Culture has a large part to play in this. Is failing or making mistakes accepted within your team and organisation? Are failures fatal or a learning experience? Is there a continuous improvement mindset and approach, or more of a mantra of get it right the first time?

Is it safe to take risks - are these actively encouraged, or does everyone play it safe and "always do what we've always done"?

When people join an organisation they typically come fired up and excited, wanting to do their best. This feeling often evaporates with the same speed as mist disappearing with the rising sun. (This is so prevalent I'll explore it more next week.)

What about your organisation? How quickly do people get up and running? Typically it takes three to six months before a new team member is actively productive and contributing. There is a way to speed this up and simultaneously increase engagement, team loyalty and staff retention. This is where the car going backwards comes in.

The better you train a person, the quicker they can perform. This means slowing down to the point where it feels like you're going backwards. The temptation is to do as little training as possible - just enough for the person to do the immediate task they have been given.

The effect is rather like pulling back the toy car just a little bit - it only moves forward a little bit and then needs you to pull it back again.

It is far better to have an active induction and training programme that invests the time upfront, effectively pulling the toy car back as far as it will go. When it is then released it has the potential to race forward unassisted for a long time.

Finding and selecting a new team member takes a lot of time and resources. Ensure you do not short change yourself by skimping on the training - take the time. Yes, it will feel like you are going backwards initially, but the forward momentum of a well-trained employee is something you and your team will never regret.

• Mike Clark is director and lead trainer and facilitator at Think Right business training company.