Table of Contents

Introduction

This document seeks to summarize some techniques for transferring knowledge at WARG (and similar organizations) and orient toward resources for further reading.

This document is currently incomplete. I may finish this in the future if necessary, but what’s here now is a decent starting place.

Inspiration

This document is heavily inspired by Sahil’s philosophies following numerous detailed conversations regarding leadership. These techniques have all been used on me (Daniel) in numerous aspects and I feel it is important that leads on WARG have a firm grasp of how to pass knowledge onto their team members and peers.

If you are reading this page because you feel your peers require too much of your effort/influence to produce meaningful results you have come to the right place!

I hope to enumerate this knowledge transfer pipeline in the below sections by explaining some key concepts interlaced with examples from my personal WARG experience! My examples are primarily related to electrical engineering due to my personal interests though should be extrapolated to any other discipline WARG dabbles in.

Motivation

Positive Motivations

Due to the nature of WARG being made up of “volunteers” we naturally primarily possess members who are looking to contribute to at least some aspect of the team as anyone with other motives has little incentive to stick around. This means that the primary barrier to members producing meaningful results autonomously is their abilities! This is great because WARG is an amazing (relatively) low stakes learning environment so let’s see how us leads can resolve this using what I’ll call the “Knowledge Transfer Pipeline”.

A secondary and related objective is learning. We all want to learn via WARG, however, it should be clear (or made clear by mentors) that learning within WARG will be achieved through contribution as indicated through Team Charter (2021-2024) .

Other Motivations

Additionally some may be more motivated to have WARG on their resume than their desire to have a contribution. WARG attempts to mitigate this with our Bootcamps and Member Definition but culturally we should also be clear with the Expectations of Members.

Another notable motivation to co-op students is seeking their co-op credit. Consequently WARG should be cautious in selecting co-op students by means documented in Advice for New Co-Op Supervisors and Selection process to ensure this motivation is overshadowed by the positive motivations.

Further, we are all motivated, in some part, by the social aspects of WARG though such factors are often overshadowed by or play into the aforementioned prime motivation of contributing to the team.

Effects

Some common effects to be kept in mind when transferring knowledge!

Dunning-Kruger

Wikipedia ( Dunning–Kruger effect ) can explain this effect far better than I can so give this a quick skim if you’re not already familiar. The primary point of mentioning it here is that leads must be cognizant of this effect.

The first day I walked into the WARG bay I was asked if I knew how to solder to which I promptly said “Yes”! I was excited and wanted to seem knowledgeable to my peers. Following this exchange I was assigned a simple task to solder a small header to a printed circuit board. I immediately realized I was far from my comfort zone. I’d only soldered simple wires at this point in my life and simply was unaware of all the intricacies/techniques that are used in soldering modern electronics! Thankfully as a first year I was easy to read and my ineptitude was quickly recognized by my peers who jumped into action to help me out. If this wasn’t recognized I would’ve certainty made a mistake (creating a setback for the team), possibly injured myself (since equipment can be dangerous), and/or felt demoralized, embarrassed, or defeated by my failure to complete the task (possibly resulting in me not coming back to the bay in the future).

Everyone experiences/displays this effect slightly differently so it’s important to watch out for this and be sure to jump in and provide guidance as enumerated in the coming sections!

Some Razors

We are all students and young adults, consequently, by the nature of such a condition, our errors are generally due to incompetence. Even outside of WARG this is true as is stated within Hanlon's razor as “Do not attribute to malice what can instead be attributed to incompetence”. A vast majority of the time WARGians are not trying to cause harm on purpose, they are simply incompetent, by little fault of their own, we require mentorship and mistakes to learn. As mentioned, WARG is that environment, On Mistakes .

Another razor,Occam's razor, states that the conclusion with requiring the fewest assumptions is generally the true conclusion. In short, be extremely cautious with assumptions. Especially in mentorship and when providing feedback.

The First Time

The first time someone sees someone do something is generally what they interpret as the best way regardless of how correct it truly is and therefore will always the most impactful. When you are demonstrating how to do something to someone who is new to that thing take every precaution to ensure you are following best practices at all times. As the teacher you have some responsibility!

When someone has already done something in the past they will be much more confident in their understanding and be more willing to challenge you on things you state that are not clear or potentially incorrect. It is much harder to unlearn something that’s wrong then it is to learn something as humans are creatures of habit.

Evaluating

Knowing your mentee’s existing knowledge is critical for how knowledge transfer should be approached. Evaluating someone’s knowledge can generally be achieved by asking small probing questions. When evaluating someone’s readiness for a position within WARG, refer to Skillset Levelling Rubric .

The Four Squares

Finish this section.

The four squares is a technique to evaluate a member’s level of autonomy.

“I talk, I decide”, “I Talk, You Decide”, “You Talk, You Decide”

trust built in raindrops, lost in buckets

Transfer Techniques

This section outlines techniques for transferring knowledge! Please note that wording/phrasing is key and the previous sections should be considered when executing these techniques.

See One, Do One, Teach One

The “See One, Do One, Teach One” is a three step process that is great for passing knowledge directly once you know someone’s current capabilities! As we progress through these steps the time investment required from the mentor is slowly reduced and the capabilities of the mentee are increased. It’s also worth noting these steps don’t have to be so binary and stages can be simultaneously executed.

discuss Sahil & I on the oscilloscope as an example (talk about it in each of the sections too)

See One

When someone is incapable of completing a task to the standards it needs to be completed to, whether that be quality or time, it is important to start in the “See One” stage. This stage is where you complete the task, however, the key here is you are showing your mentee what you are doing as well as why you’re doing it. It is important as well that questions are addressed though depending on how quickly the task needs to be done it may be worth.

Finally be sure you keep it engaging! Have the mentee assist you in the task as much as reasonably possible with grabbing tools and holding items or simply looking up information.

Do One

The “do one” stage is where you allow your mentee to do the task themselves and provide guidance where needed. In this stage feel free to allow minor mistakes to happen to facilitate learning!

This is a good stage to start someone off at if you are unsure of their abilities. It is important however to pay attention to their performance, gauging for the aforementioned Dunning-Kruger Effect! If you see exceptional performance consider skipping to the “Teach One” stage and inversely if you see poor performance jump to the “See One” stage.

Teach One

The “teach one” stage is where you allow your mentee to teach the knowledge they’ve learned to others! This stage is critical because others will ask questions to challenge their current understanding and provoke further learning.

Another Example

Now to get a little meta with you! It may not have been obvious, however, writing this document for me completes this cycle in yet another way:

• See One: Since I’ve met Sahil (at the start of my university career) I’ve looked up to his leadership abilities and am able to see how he is able to successfully orient a team in numerous examples everyday!

• Do One: I’ve taken the WARG electrical team under my leadership for the past few terms and tried out as many of these strategies as possible to see what I like and what I don’t.

• Teach One: Here I am writing this document. At least attempting to teach you (most likely a WARG lead) how to effectively leverage your team!

Direct Transfer

As we’re a design team we love to promote the “See One, Do One, Teach One” process as enumerated, however, in some cases tasks are extremely technical. In this case a brief one on one or small group “lecture” may be necessitated. Ideally these lectures are done with enough people that leads don't need to repeat themselves, but small enough that the group feels comfortable asking plenty of questions.

The structure of these lectures should follow the “Motivation,…”

hmm need to remember this know link and theory. need to write the rest of this too. @Sahil Kale had this cadets structure which I like but want to get in here. Stopping for questions and ensuring the small group you’re teaching is

An example of this is explaining buck converter control loop stability. This is a complicated subject and should be taught directly as the above methods would transfer this knowledge far too slowly.

External Resources

Some more context to these techniques can be found in the below resources:

• http://changingminds.org/disciplines/warfare/art_war/sun_tzu_annotated.htm

• https://aircadetleaguepei.ca/wp-content/uploads/guides/level4/po_403.pdf

• https://34aircadets.ca/storage/app/media/old-site/resources/ig/M403.04.pdf