Current training techniques involve explaining what to look for and thus reducing the trial & error time when most experience is acquired. But here is the pitfall: If you have ever been shown how to do something (use a piece of software or bake a cake from scratch) and were then turned loose on your own to try it, you know you did not get far before the choices, combinations, and possibilities overwhelmed you. Knowing what to do and doing it are two different things. In the cake example, the instructions did not specify to measure the flour after sifting. The cake ended up with three times the flour and turned to brick when it cooled. In the software example, the first screen that did not match what was expected or asked for information not understood, stumped the learner. In both cases, the learning failed.
The second cake or attempt at software usually gets farther along, until one day the task seems so simple that it's hard to imagine how it could ever have seemed difficult. The result is experience, and even with training and simulation, the time to acquire the database in a learner's head is typically many months, possibly even years.
For instance, suppose, as in the case of airports and the new crackdown on security and baggage inspection, the 28,000 folks around the country watching the X-ray monitor need to be trained how to identify specific dangers. Someone who knows everything about reading that monitor has to be found, and a means of imparting that wisdom-experience-must be put in place.
Training sessions begin. In this example, a combination of classroom and self-paced, computer-based learning sessions will be designed and delivered. But the expert became an expert by spending a long period of time learning how to differentiate between how common and dangerous items look on the monitor. Time is the critical factor. If your company needs experience for a key position and cannot hire it in sufficient quantities, what can be done?
