How to START people in Life and Ministry Skills

The essence of OJT – On the Job Training

by Myles Lorenzen

✓  Show them how to do it –modeling for them the process

✓  Tell them how to do it – explanation while showing them

✓  Allow them to try it – it’s now their turn to try their hand while you observe

✓  Review the results – encourage their progress and give feedback for improvements – repeat this AR cycle until they have ‘got it’

✓  Turn them lose to do it on their own, in their own setting

Note: This START approach is core to training our children;  e.g. how to tie their shoelaces or drive a car. But it is not limited merely to the family.

During my 11 years in the Navy, this was also fundamental to an intensive ongoing training process used in a submarine setting; even for something as complex as running a nuclear power plant on that sub. Theory and content were important but it was generally limited to just what a watch stander really needed to know. The START approach then was used to qualify the person on how to do the all the jobs required on any particular watch station.

Adult educations experts also remind us that another key component is needed in order to obtain maximum ‘sticking’ power from any training setting – namely on-site follow-up and mentoring. In fact, this additional step will double the retention and ongoing application of any training event.

So whereas, we in World Team have used the START acronym for years, we may want to consider making it STARTS by adding this additional step:

✓  Show up on site to follow-up, encourage and mentor them in what they are doing!

It is interesting that this sixth step was very much in play on the subs. A newly qualified watch stander, who was standing the watch for the first few times alone, was carefully monitored, encouraged and tested (with emergency drills) to ensure that he could in fact carry out the requirements of the watch on his own.