It was Heubert Dryfus who spoke in a reflection of his award for teaching who talked about how the best approach for teaching is to let students into his own personal learning process. I don’t know if this method has an academic name, but it makes sense seeing the best practices in action that surround Lean thinking. Take for example the following seemingly separate types of engagements; all geared toward learning and discovery:
- The emphasis of Lean techniques bringing responsibility to the individual contributors to improve.
- The grand push towards coaching as a model for improvement.
Consider how we best learn. I think it is at the intersection of repetition, life-cycle understanding (see Job Instruction), and the non-expert model where both teachers and students are learning and sharing with each other. Based upon that I submit these 3 educational design principles:
- Understand the whole before going deeper.
- Learn from every encounter.
- Reflect on yourself and your contribution.
Some say that we, as humans, feel like we are living life as it should be if and only if we are learning. This is the perfect definition of lean: optimal Respect and Continuous Improvement.