Rope, Rigging, Reason.
Ideas that hold up under load
Hey Reader
The most experienced person in the room is sometimes the biggest problem.
I was out on a walk recently — and if you know New Zealand, that means 500 metres of climb in 30 minutes. One person in our group didn't come often, and he was pushing hard to keep up.
Here's what I kept noticing: every time he caught the main group, everyone started moving again. The moment he arrived was the moment the rest ended. He walked nonstop while everyone else recovered.
Not an experience that's going to bring him back for the next one.
It reminded me of something I see in mixed-experience training groups all the time.
Some people are overwhelmed. Some have done this ten times and could teach it in their sleep. You put them together, assuming the experienced ones will carry the less experienced — and often they do. But not always in the way you need.
What happens more often than I'd like is that the experienced people take over. They want to show what they know, so they dump information, skip ahead, and go off-plan. The person who was already struggling gets more overwhelmed. And the instructor is backtracking, re-teaching, cleaning up a mess that didn't need to happen.
The fix is a brief
Before the session, I give my experienced people more context than I normally would — not just what we're covering, but how. Here's the version I use:
We'll set the context, I'll demonstrate, students imitate, and then we consolidate with practice. Your job is to assist during the imitate phase. Follow what the instructor demonstrates. No more, no less.
Clear role. Clear scope. When they know exactly where they fit, they stop freelancing — and the people who need the most support actually get it at the right moment.
The good news? This is a five-minute conversation before the session starts. That's it.
If you want the full version, I've put together a one-page summary of the instructional approach I use with rescue teams.
DOWNLOAD the one-page instructional summary
And if you want to talk through how this fits your team or organisation — programme design, workbooks, field guides, instructor mentoring — just reply and we'll set something up.
Headed out for another "walk",
Grant
