[Welcome Matt Beckstrom, our latest guest blogger! -- sarah]
I believe that one of the hardest lessons for technology people is learning how to help users help themselves. We have to remember that a major part of our job is to teach. I've often seen tech people treat users like lowly animals and talk about how stupid they are. These types of people talk down to users and confirm the users’ belief that they don't know anything about computers.
Something about that just isn’t right.
Here are a couple of things I do to help users learn from me instead of me just doing it for them.
First, I’ll let you know that I've worn holes in all my pants from kneeling next to them at their computers, and it's worth it. When a user shows me what the problem is, I'll often say, "ok, let's take a look at it." Notice I don't say "I'll take a look at it," but "let's." I'll then walk them through the process of taking care of whatever the problem was.
Another way to do this is by repeating the solutions, over and over. I don't know how many times I've said "please reboot the computer and let me know if it comes back." Usually after I suggest that step a couple of times, most users will just start doing it without calling me first. (This can backfire on you when users start rebooting each computer whenever the Internet is slow, but that's another topic.) Sometimes after a couple of suggestions, I will then say "whenever you see this error message, it's OK to just go ahead and reboot it the computer."
I also try to point out other resources for solutions. If they are having problems creating a Word merge file or using a label format, for example, I'll tell them about some of the sites I use that offer great advice for working in Word or suggest a couple of books that we carry at the Library.
There are more techniques I use to help them, but I use these the most. I would love to hear about other ideas. The more comfortable our users are with technology, the easier our job will become. Plus, we can spend more time trying to figure out a way to convince our directors that we NEED to have a wall mounted 42" LCD monitor in our offices…
Matt Beckstrom
Network Services Manager
Lewis & Clark Library
Helena, MT
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--> recent blog posts about Matt's work
Help others help themselves
Beam Me Up, Scotty
--> add to the discussion, and leave a comment below on how you help users and colleagues with technology
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holes in the knees
Since I wear skirts and dresses most of the time to work I'm not wearing holes in the knees of my pants, but otherwise you are on target. I have found that I tend to do more of the let me do it for you attitude when working with seniors. Thanks for your reminder that I can take with me when working with everyone, regardless of ...
The upside is, as you mentioned, that they will often do it themselves the next time, or perhaps the next, next time, leaving time for me to do other fun things.
Another thing
Another thing I should have mentioned is that sometimes it is very important not to let them know that you are teaching them. I think that some users would immediately turn off if they were told that they were going to be taught something. They just want it fixed. Seniors on the other hand really do want to learn for the most part, they really want to understand computers.
What other fun things are you up to with all your free time? (mine is going back to school!)
matt...
good tip: undercover teaching
i've never heard someone frame it that way, but it certainly sounds like a good idea. empowering the user with knowledge without hand-holding, directing, or overt teaching. good tip!
Monitor the size of Montana
Matt, you're the best. You deserve a 42' monitor. You don't already have one? That's just sad.
Soon. . .
Thanks! Hopefully soon I will learn the secrets I need to convince the director that the 42" monitor for my office is necessity. We did buy a 42" television for the lobby that continuously shows a slide show of upcoming events, hours, etc. I almost mounted it in my office, but then I would have to keep my door closed. . . and locked. . . .
matt...
Self-Sufficiency Is Our Goal
I agree with Matt completely (and I gave up skirts for this very reason - too much kneeling and crawling around trying to fix things). I almost NEVER do things for patrons, but look over their shoulder and direct them - it makes it easier for them to duplicate what we're doing, and gives them confidence. One trainer was adamant about this: NEVER grab the mouse from a patron, and I've always followed this advice. It's difficult sometimes - you just want to fix the problem - but in the long run, taking the few extra minutes to let someone work through it at their pace while you wait will actually save time.
We've worked on getting the staff self-sufficient, too - they can manage the simple problems on their own which gives me time to enjoy the view from my office window (no 42" monitor here!).
(I started this reply a while ago, and have been interrupted several times, so can't really remember all the great points in Matt's original post that I wanted to address - hopefully this makes some sense!)
Different ways of teaching
I try to engage people in any way that I can:
And of course, anything else I can think in the moment!
Marc