The Desk Doctors view is that how we learn many of our IT skills is ridiculous.  Just plain ridiculous.  We’re too busy or stingy to go on a course. Too impatient to read the manual.  Or worse still, many of the tools we use do not have a manual.

All too often we learn a new software skill by accidentally watching whilst a colleague does something in half as many steps as it would take you. Flabbergasted you then splutter, “How did you do that? Show me again.” 

On your first few days in a new job, someone tries to show you how the “systems” work.  They explain where to file and how to name your new documents.  They usually tell you once.If you’re lucky and they’re not too busy (buckley’s chance of that!), they may also show you once at breakneck speed. Well that’ll never work! Every study of human learning shows that few of us remember what we have been told just once. We need to see it, practice it and receive feedback that we “got it.”  But who has time for that?

The unfortunate result is that we have to make time for mistakes and rework.  We pay our staff to do things the Super Slow way for years before they stumble upon that colleague who happens to be doing something we are all doing every day a MUCH faster way.

It’s not your fault that you’ve gotten to this point… have you ever been shown the tips and tricks of the key tools you use every day? Probably not.  If you received some initial training, was there any on-going reinforcement? Probably not.  Was the trainer qualified, experienced and skilled to an expert level in that specific tool? Probably not.

If you want to explore how the Desk Doctors can help you understand how you can use your Microsoft Office software effectively, please give Judy Gleeson a call on M: 0417 485 327.