Should I jump in, or should I let them learn? You’ve probably had that thought at some point. When we see our employees struggle, and we can help them, we want to help them. After all, isn’t our job to support our employees? Why should we let them learn the hard way? I’ve often wondered the same thing, so I decided to dig into some research and let you know what I found.

Is it really the hard way? Well, the research says a lot about how beneficial desirable difficulties can be for learning. A desirable difficulty is a challenge that forces a person to learn and push the limits of their capabilities. As a child, it could be when you were given your first chapter book. As a leader, it could be your first difficult conversation. It can also be much larger, like a project or initiative. In these cases, it can be hard to make these challenges learning opportunities because of the risks to performance. A study by Bjork & Bjork (2020) found that desirable difficulties are beneficial in the long run but often at the cost of poorer short-term performance. We don’t want employees to suffer the consequences of poor performance just for a learning opportunity.

Luckily, there are a few things you can do to help your employees learn from challenges. A study by Zepeda et. al. (2020) found that a key part of motivating your employees through challenges is providing the appropriate challenge to begin with. I call these goldilocks challenges, not too easy but not too hard. Evaluating the challenge is your first step to determining if you should step in or let them learn the best way.

From there, it’s important to ensure your employees understand they are being evaluated not just on the outcome, but also on their ability to work through the challenge and learn from the experience. The same study by Zepeda et. al. (2020) found that “Re-framing the appraisals and attributions that learners make about their learning experience is another motivational strategy that could help with the inevitable setbacks and failures that result from engaging in desirable difficulties.” Challenges are meant to be hard, so you shouldn’t expect the same type of performance as you would on an easy task. You should reframe the challenge as an important business task and learning opportunity. Success matters, but learning is most important.

Once your employee understands the challenge at hand, it’s best to relinquish control. When leaders provide autonomy, they increase the likelihood of positive outcomes, such as the internalization of work motivation, well-being, work engagement, positive job attitudes, and desired job behaviors (Slemp et. al., 2018). This can be hard, especially if you have trouble letting go of control. I wrote about that in a past edition.

We tend to learn and retain knowledge best when we can work through challenges on our own. Challenging projects or tasks at work are perhaps the best way to provide opportunities for continuous learning. Next time you feel the need to offer your support, ask yourself:

Until next time,

Rick

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