When someone is teaching you a new task, don’t just ask them to show you the steps.
Ask:
“What usually goes wrong?”
Because the normal process is usually the easiest part.
You can learn:
Click here.
Enter this.
Check that.
Send it.
Done.
The experienced person knows something else.
They know what happens when the customer gives you the wrong information.
When the system doesn’t work.
When a number doesn’t match.
When the machine does something it isn’t supposed to do.
When you accidentally skip a step.
When the person you’re supposed to contact is off that day.
That’s the knowledge that usually isn’t in the instructions.
Someone in the discussion said they train forklift operators. The computer process is easy. The hard part is that problems don’t happen in a nice, predictable sequence.
That’s true almost everywhere.
Think about driving.
Someone can teach you how to start the car, change lanes, park and follow the signs.
But the more useful question is:
What do I do if the car suddenly starts acting weird?
Or working in a restaurant.
You can learn how to enter an order.
But what happens when the kitchen says they are out of the item after the customer already paid?
Or working in an office.
You can learn how to submit an expense report.
But what happens when the amount doesn’t match the receipt and payroll rejects it?
Or IT.
You can learn the normal procedure for deleting a server.
But you really want someone to tell you:
“Don’t ever run this command with a wildcard.”
One person in the discussion gave a brutal example from a data center. A coworker once came dangerously close to deleting 5,000 production servers because of a one-character difference involving a wildcard.
That’s the kind of information you don’t want to learn from experience.
There is another question I would add:
“What mistake have you seen someone make that looked harmless at first?”
That’s often better than asking for a list of rules.
People remember disasters.
They remember the shortcut that caused a problem.
The button that shouldn’t be pressed.
The customer who always causes trouble.
The report that looks correct but is actually wrong.
The step that everybody skips until something breaks.
And if you’re new, you don’t have those memories yet.
That’s what experience really gives you.
Not just knowing how to do the job.
Knowing where the job can bite you.
I’d also write down the answers.
One commenter made the point that documentation matters because experienced workers forget how much information they carry around in their heads.
But don’t try to document every tiny thing.
Write down the failure points.
What can go wrong?
How do I recognize it?
What should I do first?
Who do I call?
What should I absolutely not do?
That’s basically the unofficial manual.
And honestly, this works outside of work too.
Buying a used car?
Don’t just ask the owner how everything works.
Ask:
“What has gone wrong with this car before?”
Renting an apartment?
Don’t just ask how the heating works.
Ask:
“What usually breaks?”
Learning to cook from someone?
Don’t just ask for the recipe.
Ask:
“What do people usually screw up?”
Learning to use a new piece of equipment?
Don’t just ask how to operate it.
Ask:
“How do I know I’m using it wrong?”
That’s the difference between learning the procedure and learning the experience.
The instructions tell you how things are supposed to work.
The experienced person can tell you how they actually fail.
And that second part is usually worth much more.