Less Steps is More Learning
We always liked Einstein’s quote, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler”. When educating a learner on something they need to apply, the less you present to them, while still covering what is necessary, the better the learner performance. Let’s take, for instance, a learning module where we need to train an employee at a warehouse on how find and take packages off the shelf. There may be four specific steps an employee will need to take, including reading and moving to the location listed on a hand scanner, then scanning the location bar code, scanning the package bar code, and checking and listing the quantity still on the shelf if less then five. There may ten exceptions to this process. The products may be too high on the shelf, too heavy, missing, broken, mislabeled, etc. As you can see, the more steps and exceptions, the more time it takes to learn and the less the employee will be able to remember. Create a spreadsheet of these steps and exceptions and define what is necessary and common and what is less important or less common. You can teach the four steps and two of the most common exceptions and then teach the employee where to find information on how to handle additional exceptions.