Why We Always Teach People Tools
The philosophy, an example, and some science behind this approach.
The GoalPeople should leave training sessions immediately able to take actions.
The Insight Teach people tools because tools:
turn knowledge into action
are immediately learnable
change organizational norms
What Are “Tools”?
At OYF we define tools as specific patterns of behavior to accomplish goals.
And, we teach a lot of tools, including tools for meetings, tools for ideation, tools for improv, tools for story, tools for virtual work, and the list goes on.
Why do we love teaching tools so much? Because tools turn knowledge into immediate action, and tools quickly change company norms. Here’s a really simple example, followed by some science.
Example
To understand the power of tools, let’s start with a tool important to any leader: “Start with the Ending.”
In our Better Meetings training, we teach this tool. This tool is a more specific, more structured, and more narrative way to do “meeting objectives.”
This tool states that you more effectively start a meeting by describing in short detail what a successful end of the meeting will look like and positioning that ending inside the large process of the meeting and what comes after.
When we teach it, we talk about the psychology of why this tool in particular works with how the brain processes and organizes information and why the common practice of “meeting objectives” is not as effective as the full “start with the ending.”
Knowledge into Action
Since the basics of this tool can be learned in two minutes, the tool immediately leads to action and practice.
Additionally, with only about 15 to 30 extra minutes of good experiential learning, people can learn the nuances of the advanced parts (i.e., “preview the journey” and “reference the after”), practice with many different versions, and understand the few times when “start with the ending” is not the best choice. The result is that people leave as rising experts in the tool.
Actions into New Company Norms
After the workshop, something magical happens: the tool starts becoming a norm across teams.
For instance, when a leader begins a meeting by saying, “Let’s start with the ending,” everyone sees the behavior and knows how to copy it. Even those who didn’t learn the idea from a training or toolkit can generally understand the tool simply by observing it a few times —and can learn more from a workplace toolkit.
In short, tools are like internet meme templates: they are easily understandable, everyone can find ways to join in, and they spread quickly.
More Thoughts from our Chief Scientist
Dr. Troy Campbell teaching tools.
It Feels Like Yours
Tools are things you make with, modify with, and personalize with. At the end of a tools training, it doesn’t feel like something the teacher taught you, but something that you built. It feels like something you and your team own. It feels like yours.
As a professor, you find out very quickly that most people don’t like to learn from a lecture; they like to learn by doing and making. Teaching tools is a way to get people to learn by doing and making. One reason is because of the psychology of ownership.
Teaching tools leads people to feel ownership of the concept more than a lecture would. Research on the psychology of ownerships and the famous IKEA Effect finds that people value and feel more ownership over things that they make rather than get pre-assembled.
Theory Through Tools
As an academic, I love theory, and I’ve never lost that love. I have just changed how I teach it. Today, I teach theory through tools.
When I began as professor I would lecture people on the awesomeness of big theories. I’d bring in stories and examples to explain the theories, and it would be entertaining and engaging, but it was never as useful as it could have been.
As I developed as professor and trainer, I found that teaching people tools is the quickest way to help them learn theory. If I could go back in time and tell the young professor I used to be anything, it would be:
Theory is awesome, but people learn the nuances of theory best by applying it in structured tools.
