I just finished observing the pilot test of a two-day new hire training we created for Brook Harvey and the fine folks at Postlethwaite and Netterville. We built the training around a fictitious company and a three-part case study that required the participants to audit cash, fixed assets and accounts payable.
These were new hires and interns, so just navigating the binder was a challenge. You can talk to them all day long about “this is a cash lead sheet,” and “here’s how you audit a bank rec.” but the first time they look at a binder with real work papers, they’re going to be at a complete loss.
It was very much like the first time I went to Paris, not too far removed from four years of high school French class. The first time an actual Frenchman spoke to me I was absolutely paralyzed.
Part one of our audit case study was delivered at the end of the first day, and the collective participant response was the proverbial deer in the headlights. The firm manager/facilitators were devastated, convinced they’d done something wrong. “Why aren’t they getting it?” One of the participants later told us that she phoned her dad that night and told him she had to switch majors, that she wasn’t cut out for public accounting.
But then, after a good night’s rest…they started to catch on.
Through perseverance, expert guidance and coaching, and a safe learning environment, this group of participants caught on quickly. Part two of the case study the deer in the headlights look was gone; by part three, the tests that seemed so confusing the day before they took on with no hesitancy. They asked questions about the actual audit and not just “where do I begin?”
So what did we teach them?
On the agenda it says we taught them how to audit cash, fixed assets, and accounts payable, but that doesn’t tell the real story.
The team of facilitators provided these participants with a challenging case study and a learning opportunity. The facilitators provided guidance and support and invited the group to try their best, fail if they had to, but keep working the problem.
What this group of participants really learned was how to learn, how to reach out for help when they needed it, and how to figure out things on their own. Most importantly, the learned that they are, indeed, fully capable of succeeding in public accounting and that there’s no need to find a new career.
All credit to Allyson, Ashley and Amanda, the firm managers who coached this group and had the patience to teach them to fish and avoid their instinct to just give them the fish and be done with it. Teaching this way requires patience and a leap of faith that others can learn without you overloading their minds with with information.
That’s the kind of learning that lasts, and I’m confident that this group of young professionals will show up at their next job (for many, their first job) fully prepared for whatever comes their way.