The 5 - 15 Rule

One of my training heroes, Jim LaBarr, has often expressed one of the keys to training: getting a user's attitude to transition from "I don't know how to do that" to "I bet there's a way to do that."

Last week I was in a training session with another hero, Tavie Allan. She introduced the class to what she calls the "5 - 15" rule. The idea is so simple: if you're having a problem, you MUST NOT ask for help until you've spent at least five minutes trying to find the answer for yourself. And, you MUST NOT spend more than fifteen minutes on the problem without asking for help. Two simple boundaries.

Of course, there's nothing particularly magic about 5 and 15. 3 and 12 would be good. Even 1 and 5! What numbers would you use? Would this work in your organization?

Thanks Jim and Tavie!

Comments

[David Carroll]

That's a cool idea.

My boundaries are a lot longer than that. But not if you count Google and Bing as "Asking for help".

Speaking of asking for help, there must be a corollary there about how to prepare to get a good answer, like including something more specific than "My thing doesn't work". We spend a lot of time replying and asking for more information.