Say, you’re tasked with onboarding a new teammate, a new co-worker. You don’t know them well yet, but you want them to become effective at what the team does, quickly. You also want to quickly shore up their confidence, if that’s also needed. How to get there effectively?
From experience, I’ve build a model where beginner profiles can be projected on two dimensions: learning styles and anxieties.
A single person can fit multiple combinations, or oscillate between profiles depending on circumstances; each point is a model that helps the team around the learner to help them move forward.
The value in this model is that it explains how certain learning strategies that work well for a particular profile can be actively counter-productive or even harmful for another.
Learning styles
I found the following three learning styles the most prevalent. Note that this is not exhaustive: there may be many other learning styles besides these three. I have not seen them as often, or perhaps I do not understand them yet.
Chaotic learners
Chaotic learners are folk who do not know what they don’t know yet, and also do not have a meta-model for their learning best practices. That is, they might know how they learn best, but in any case they don’t know how to explain that to others.
- Needs the team to deploy a diverse set of teaching strategies upfront to see “what sticks”.
- Needs frequent and explicit push to reflect about what they’ve learned and how.
- Might experience anxiety at proposals to share their learnings with their team.
Unbalanced learners
These are folk who think they know what they don’t know yet, and have had success with a particular learning strategy in the past. They are eager to start working or studying in the way that was successful in the past but often dismiss / fail to recognize alternative strategies.
- Needs the team to figure out how to shape starter projects in the particular way that works for the individual at the beginning.
- If the learning strategy is not compatible with the beginner’s expectation, that may cause anxiety and distress.
- Benefits from “fireside chats” where other team members explain how they learn, i.e. exposure to other learning styles besides their own to open their mind.
- Can/should be coached to share their learnings with their team.
- Might benefit from receiving mentoring as to how to better reflect on learnings and develop new learning strategies
- Might not be able to effectively interact with a “sparring partner” if the other person uses a very different learning model.
Strategic learners
These are folk who are comfortable using a toolbox of various learning strategies and already have experience reflecting on their learnings.
- Needs the team to listen to the learner and perhaps develop new projects or new project styles.
- Often strategic learners are smarter about their learning process than the collective intuition of their team and that needs to be recognized / managed.
- Feels empowered by invitations to share their learnings with their team.
- Benefits from and enjoys interactions with a “sparring partner” to exercise strategies, reflect on learnings etc.
Anxieties
I found the following three anxiety types the most prevalent. Note that this is not exhaustive: I know from experience there are many other sources (or systems) for anxiety besides these three. However, I find most other sources of anxiety are best handled outside of the workplace, with support from friends and family and sometimes a trusted professional.
Self-affirmation anxiety
This might occur with folk who are unsure about who they are in relationship to their team and their organization. Anxieties about personal validation, dignity, respect.
- Needs the team to spell out explicitly that diversity is celebrated.
- Benefits from “fireside chats” where other team members share their experience of learning, and how their unique traits helped them
- Benefits from being seen and respected outside of work assignments: casual interactions (e.g. meals, walks, events), curiosity about personal values from other team members, etc.
- Might experience anxiety when receiving feedback in any form.
Performance anxiety
This might occur with folk who are unsure about their self-worth and relate their self-worth excessively to their performance at work. Anxieties about performance validation, “how much is good enough”, impostor syndrome.
- Needs and enjoys frequent performance feedback with both praise for achievements and constructive suggestions for areas of improvements.
- Benefits from clarity about the reward structure.
- Benefits from clear project outlines and strategy.
- At risk of over-work and poor work-life balance (e.g. mental health
degradation) in chase of performance-related validation.
- This can be mitigated by making work-life balance hygiene part of the performance validation.
- May need to learn/understand that “performance” means something different for other team members, and so they are not really competing with co-workers.
- Might experience anxiety with “fireside chats” due to unnecessary performance comparisons between the participants and the self.
Pitfalls
In the sections below, we can see how different ways to teach a newcomer can interfere with their anxieties in non-constructive ways. These are the “pitfalls” of onboarding, and I found it useful to keep them in mind to navigate around them.
In-depth information delivery
These pitfalls can be encountered when learners are exposed to in-depth input, such as lectures, detailed documentation etc.
| Learning style | Chaotic learner | Unbalanced learner | Strategic learner |
| Self-affirmation anxiety | Might be compatible. | Compatible if aligned with preferred learning style. | Compatible. |
| Performance anxiety | Might be compatible. Risks creating anxiety if the learner is unable to understand the content and does not realize why. | Compatible if aligned with preferred learning style. | Compatible but need guidance about expectations - not all is worth learning. |
| Social safety anxiety | Not compatible. Learner will feel excluded by exposure to content they don’t know how to interact with effectively. | Might be compatible. Risk of triggering anxieties if the content is at the edge of the learner’s ability. | Might be compatible. Needs content to be factual and objective. |
Gradual practical projects
These are pitfalls that can be encountered during Work assignments of gradual complexity, with more detailed instruction at the beginning.
| Learning style | Chaotic learner | Unbalanced learner | Strategic learner |
| Self-affirmation anxiety | Compatible, assuming the assignments stimulate a diversity of learning styles. | Compatible, assuming the team adjusts projects in accordance to the learner’s preferences. | Might be compatible. Risk of creating anxiety if the projects are too easy for the learning’s ability at the start. |
| Performance anxiety | Might be compatible. Risks boredom without ability to articulate what would work better. | Might be compatible. Risks boredom if not aligned with learner’s preferred learning style. | Compatible. |
| Social safety anxiety | Compatible. | Compatible. | Compatible. |
Fireside chats, group presentations
These pitfalls can be encountered when team members have a group discussion to exchange narratives about past experiences, current learnings, etc.
| Learning style | Chaotic learner | Unbalanced learner | Strategic learner |
| Self-affirmation anxiety | Not compatible. Risks triggering anxiety because of perceived possibility for the learner to be put on the spot during a conversation. | Might be compatible, assuming topics cover learning styles and experiences. | Compatible. |
| Performance anxiety | Not compatible. Too much risk of triggering large anxieties due to unnecessary comparisons with team members. | Might be compatible, assuming assuming topics cover learning styles and experiences AND the learner has had good experiences with this mode earlier. Risks of anxieties otherwise. | Compatible. |
| Social safety anxiety | Might be compatible. Risk for the learner to remain disengaged or reserved due to not perceiving relevance or power structures yet. | Might be compatible, assuming topics cover learning styles and experiences. Needs content to be factual and objective. | Compatible. Needs content to be factual and objective. |
Social safety anxiety
This might occur with folk who are hyper-aware of power dynamics and are afraid (or legitimately at risk) of being penalized by the group; either from past trauma, upbringing circumstances or ongoing experience in other social spheres.