Prepare the Worker The Four Step Process

       The topic for this essay is The Four Step Process and can be found beginning on page 187 – 190 Supervisor's Survival Kit (11th Edition).  I think the baseball diamond example on page 187 caught my attention at first, but after reading through this section I felt that these four points are very important as a supervisor. These four steps can be used at any level (business or personal) when trying to teach or explain a process.

        Number one or first base on the baseball diamond is “Prepare the Worker”.  This is a good time for “small talk” (about what you are trying to teach) to put the learner at ease. Give them an overview of what you will be going over, motivate them if they feel overwhelmed ( use encouraging words) and make sure they are comfortable physically (and emotionally as much as possible). 

      Second base (step 2) is to present the operation or process. Describe, illustrate and demonstrate each important step of the job, procedure or process speaking clearly and slowly and follow up with an illustration whenever possible. 

     Third base (step 3) is to supervise a trial performance. To me, this step will be a self evaluation to see how well or how clearly I have explained the steps to the employee, any confusion that I see in the employee may mean that I may need to explain this area a little more clearly next time and also to correct any errors, or questions, the employee may have. This is also a good time to explain the key points of the job and to make sure the worker understands the task. 

      Home Base (step 4) is the follow up phase. This is where we can instruct the worker where to go for help or let them know that they can contact you if help is needed. You may want to check on them frequently at first to make sure thing are going well (but not too often). Make sure to give the employee space to lean on their own and to get comfortable with the system, job or process, over supervising can destroy initiative. 

      There are a couple more things that I think are important; 1. If the employee doesn’t catch on quickly, fails to perform key steps in the process, or has difficulty this may be a Strike Out. First, evaluate your-self, did YOU fail to devote enough time to learning? Did YOU fail to follow the system step by step? Did YOU fail to show enough patience with a slow learner? And 2. YOUR attitude is everything. Make sure your personal attitude is positive and can adjust to the level that you are trying to teach. What I mean by that is… don’t get frustrated and turn to negative even slightly the trainee will quickly put up on this and the training process will become even more complicated. Be professional and set aside enough time to be a patient and caring instructor.