To echo Ryder's (and Stever's) comments & sentiments, When I started
developing my present organization, I wrote a tech manual on Macintosh
operations to help all those die-hard PC guys be better prepared for
Mac-using customer calls. At first, no one thought much about it. Then a
few of the newer techs started using the book. They loved it.
As far as it went, the book did an excellent job of describimg common
problems and providing typically successful solutions to those problems.
The first draft was cut down to eliminate more advanced measures that
wouldn't make a lot of sense to less experienced techs (Mac-speaking, of
course). Those skills would come later.
When we looked at ways to revise the initial and continuing developmental
training for techs, those same processes (and more) started creeping back
in as essential skills. Quite handy, to be sure, but not required to
solve basic problems. The real driver was that there was little demand
for these skill sets so they would be less easily learned.
Now there is a much greater demand for those skills. We can start
teaching them with a more reasonable expectation that the knowledge will
be retained. This comes as people are being laid off and the real
necessity of having this knowledge established in the organization is more
acutely felt by all.
-- Clyde Howell orgpsych@csra.netLearning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>