Barney - AMA

What if the boss just accidentally trained you incorrectly. Hell, if it wasn't the boss and he assigned you a trainer, technically you still should not deviate even an iota from what your trainer has taught you. Perhaps his trainer taught him that, in which case it was unethical to even point out to him there was an easier way

A problem occurs within that worldview when they routinely contradict themselves.

Such as...

Why did you give him incorrect instructions?

I have experienced this a lot when training trainers. I will explain in my experience what leads to the above type of situation.

Me "Joe teach Sarah how to make a medium steak"

Joe proceeds to show Sarah the timer and grill cover used to help make a medium steak. Sarah proceeds to make many fucked up steaks because the steaks vary and thickness and shape and it was never explained to her.

Joe "Why did you overcook that medium steak"

Sarah " I felt it was overcooked based on my culinary training, but you told me to rely completely on a timer"

Joe " Well I didn't mean that"

9 times out of ten when this happens it is because the trainer was less than thorough and gave directions without mentioning every possible variable that could mean deviation. 

Another possible situation I have seen is an employee who was told to always drop 6 chicken strips in the fryer any time a chicken strip order was made. It's an adult restaurant so 1 out of every 40 orders for the strips are for kids meals that just need 4 strips. The idiot trainer just gave a rule of thumb though instead of an extremely thorough training. 

Whenever you train you want to be extremely thorough, point out every possible contingency and go forward. Even when I was managing Wendy's. I saw a lot of trainers 99% teach new crew to just use the timer for fries to know when they are done. That's not how you do it. You can't maintain quality standards that way, so I would have to retrain the trainer (I trained my managers correctly so not my fault here). 

You basically use the timer as a hint that is 99% accurate and you examine the fries before pulling them up to make sure they are golden brown, crispy and floating towards the top. I would bring up several pictures in training manuals or just that I took myself to display how to visually tell what I mean by golden brown. Same with the cookies that were baked throughout the day. My subordinates trained by showing what timers, I trained by thoroughly explaining quality standards and how to achieve them.

It sounds like you were training a guy how to use computers that likely sucks with using computers. In this situation they are obviously going to take everything you say very literally. Seeing as how they suck at computers they will assume their own common sense is wrong so they will refuse to deviate from your instructions no matter what as a type of safety crutch. 

I know it can be absurd when you say "Always start by logging into the computer" and there was a power outage in the middle of the night so they need to actually start by turning on the computer, but they refuse to cut it on because it deviates from instructions. It's kinda your job as a trainer though to be that thorough where they at the very least know they need to come directly to you if they see anything out of the ordinary.

We also have autistic people in general who will take your advice very literally and won't use or can't use common sense to deviate from the training when everyone else would intuitively know to.

If it isn't your job to train and you kinda just had the new guy pushed on you, probably not your fault the organization fucked up, but you should still be understanding. I've just trained a bunch of people personally in a variety of fields so I know what patterns to look for when it comes to having a person be a skilled trainer. 

Do you know how every company you start with has videos that really break down for people how to not be racist or how not to sexually harass people. The videos try to take into account every possible detail on how not to do that, because the creators are skilled trainers and know people come from a variety of backgrounds with a range of intelligence and common sense, so they have to spend 3 hours really breaking down how to do what is common sense for people with any sort of experience. 

It's the same way with on the job training. With me personally. I just don't stop training. There is so much depth to every job and it's just going to make your job as a leader easier when your subordinates are not guessing what to do, because they have the proper training

i read the above statement backwards and switched the L for the N. Yes that is infuriating and I have not only had supervisors that way, but thats pretty typical of any supervisor over 50 years old