Can I get a witness?

摘要

Common sense suggests that the learning of a particular ability would be enhanced by contact with an exemplar of that same ability. Engineering students should have contact with practicing engineers; art students with working artists; and those aiming for leadership positions should have contact with effective leaders. Quite how this truism is best put into practice is less obvious. The expert is rarely the person who is the teacher, the trainer, or the one assisting the student in their learning (each of these roles, of course, differs in its orientation to the process of learning). This is particularly so for organizational and management abilities. There are good reasons for this. Experts are most in demand to practice their expertise. If they are good leaders then they will be busy leading. The other significant reason is that being able to do something bears little relationship to being able to assist others in learning to do the same. These are two separate abilities. There is no reason to expect them to be housed in the same person. Typically, it is those whose expertise is in the area of learning and development who are given the charge to assist others to learn the ability, one which they may well not be the best exemplars of, even within their particular organization.