Learning Know-How from Others

[Shakya]

A client was talking about how lacking he was in a particular skill, comparing himself to one of his colleagues. Naturally I heard this as an example of Know-How being present in others, and asked him more about what his colleague did which worked so well.
But now the question: how can he best go about learning from his colleague? Anyone got any tips or helpful experiences, either for him or for me, his coach?

[Paolo Terni]

Assuming the two people you are talking about are doing the same job, what could be interesting to find out is how your coachee is managing to do his job despite lacking the particular skill his colleague has.
How can he manage to perform despite lacking that specific skill?
What else does he bring to the job?

I do not recall any specific experiences re "learning from a colleague", but I was also wondering if a scaling question could help; something like 1- lacking the skill, 10-being a master of the skill, rate the colleague, rate himself, then what would be the next little thing that could advance him on the scale... well, you know the drill :-)

Hope these thoughts can support your exploration,
have fun,
take care,
cheers,
Paolo

[Stephanie von Bidder]

Hi Shakya,
have you asked your client this qustion already? Maybe he knows the answer?
greets Stephanie

[Shakya]

I like both your answers, thankyou! I'll try them next time if the opportunity arises,
cheers
Shakya

[Kamila Novakova]

Hi Shakya,

I just wonder, how your coachee knows that he IS "lacking a particular skill", while his colleague ISN'T? What are "evidences" of having or not having this skill? Perhaps another person can see it compleetly different way... :)

In case your coachee thinks he really IS lacking this skill, how did it happen to him? Was he lacking this skill from his childhood? Weren't there any exceptions? Even small? How has he managed it to survive not having this particular skill then? Etc., etc.

What your coachee is supposing his colleague had to do to reach this desired skill? What he is supposing other people have to do? What he needs to go and try any of these steps? Who can support him? Which way? Etc., etc.

Cheers, Kamila

PS: I just remembered your "People's Front of Judea" vs. "Judean People's Front". Well, we people are different... how we can utilize it?

[Liselotte Baeijaert]

Hello Shakya,

I am always pleased when people see particular skills in colleagues and I react enthusiastically with a 'what a great resource that is!, What do you see this person doing? and then: how could you make good use of that and learn from your colleague?' Most of the times, they come up with ideas that match their own learning style: some say, I am going to talk about my challenge and ask for feedback, or: I will interview this person about the way they developed the skill and how they do it, how they think etc... some others say, I am going to spend more time with this person and watch very carefully or: 'If I face a difficult situation I will think intensively about this person and the way he/ she would go about it.' If they don't come up with their own ideas I tell them: 'well, I could give you some suggestions about what other coachees have done to learn from their colleagues? Perhaps one of those will appeal to you? '
I hope this is helpful? Have a great day, Liselotte