Different folks, different learning styles

How do you help your team learn new skills?

Let’s say you’re directly leading a mid-level engineering team with 6 or 7 direct reports, and you’re pulling a new framework or technology into your stack. There’s some budget available for training materials. What’s the best resource out there?

There isn’t just one. It’s more than likely that your team members have different learning styles, and while one person might have a great experience with one particular resource leading to a recommendation, other folks will find it less useful.

For example, I personally find learning directly-applicable technical material from videos to be a waste of time; very little sticks. But throw me into a hands-on-keys tutorial like Execute Program or Oban Training, and I’ll happily plow through and come out the other end at least halfway competent. Yet tons of folks I’ve worked with prefer video, or larger projects across the span of a book, or even podcasts about code.

The really effective approach is to help your reports understand their own learning styles, and support them in searching for resources that fit the bill, instead of spending your time trying to identify the One Best Resource. You can still set expectations around what they need to know and by when, but giving them the freedom to find their own path can be a huge boon to everyone involved–it’s more personal for them, and it’s less work for you.