James, project manager for a large building company in southern Oregon, told Session 9B of the Leadership Development Lab:

"Our company is currently constructing the Albany Waste Water Treatment Plant. This three-year project includes the construction of several structures and facilities that will require thousands of direct labor hours.

Mike, one of our project managers, and I agreed at the start of the project that a good production report is required to monitor productivity in a timely manner, as well as aid in preparing accurate financial forecasts of the project. This task was assigned to our new project engineer. I was to develop the production report for this project and train our project engineer to gather the necessary information, input this information into the spreadsheet, print and distribute the report each week. I would be using the three step training process outlined in the Leadership Development Lab™.

After a few minutes with our new project engineer, it became apparent that the scope of the training would have to be broken down into manageable components, with the three step training process utilized for each component:

1. Field documentation of quantities installed
2. Documenting progress with photographs
3. Reading drawings, "taking off" the work completed (such as formwork, concretein- place, etc.)
4. Totaling labor hours by activity
5. Entering labor hour and quantity information onto the Excel spreadsheet
6. Producing and circulating the report in a timely manner

I performed the above operations,

explaining each step to our field engineer. The next time we met, he performed the above operations, with me explaining each step. The third time we met, our field engineer performed most of the operations himself, although we still need a little more time to work on some elements.

The lesson I learned from this experience is that large training tasks can be broken down into manageable components to which the three step training process can be applied. By doing this, the training is more efficient and understandable for the trainee.

The action I call you to take when assigning a new task to anyone is to first of all learn about their former experience with the tools they will be using, and the scope of the project you are assigning them. If it is a complex assignment, break it down into its’ logical component parts. When you apply the needed training that is indicated by the scope of the project and their former experience, use Turbo’s 3-step on-thejob training model. The benefit you will gain is an empowered team member who will perform independently to your expectations. You will be able to focus on those tasks that are yours to complete. Your project will come in on time, under budget, and you will gain a great sense of accomplishment, not just from the completion of the project, perhaps more importantly, from the fact that you have created an empowered team member who will consistently perform at higher levels on all future projects."