PEEL THE ORANGE (PTO) – BENEFITS
The operating rooms in a trauma centre would be useless without the trauma teams being skilled in PTO. Any major airport would be a daily disaster area if pilots and air traffic controllers were unskilled in PTO. No football team could survive a season without highly developed PTO skills.
In ordinary, everyday life there are probably few occasions where an individual needs to be a skilled PTOer and that is a good thing. However, where one gets into leadership roles in high performance scenarios, emergency or dangerous situations or where timing is critical, or in highly competitive business and other environments that PTO becomes a strategic tool that can give the skilled user and/or team that coveted survival advantage’.
In the last DFQ you were asked to list three benefits that are likely to come from the PTO leadership skill.
PEEL THE ORANGE (PTO) – DISADVANTAGES
Today, I want to discuss the possible disadvantages of “Peel the Orange”. There are, of course, pluses and minuses to everything and PTO is no exception. Often, the greater the upside in a situation the greater the potential downside.
So what are the risks, dangers and potential disadvantages of PTO?
DFQ #13:
List three possible disadvantages of PTO as follows:1. For the trainee (you) …
2. For the trainer (Michael)…
3. For the class …
for the trainee is not enough instruction will result in a poor job
for the trainer a concise and clear instruction will not see the job done properly
for the class – the team will not achieve it objectives
1. For the trainee (you) : It is a kind of conditioned response without any chance of questioning it
…
2. For the trainer (Michael) : Will not know that there is any BVS in it.
3. For the class : There is no feedback from others.
1. For the trainee (you) PTO requires an unquestioned response
2. For the trainer (Michael) although you receive immediate and expected response you may not have the best possible response. It limits the potential advancement because thinking is restricted.
3. For the class PTO may present a limited view on the solution to the problem
For the Trainee a disadvantage may be that he does not think for himself, simply takes instruction
For the Trainer a disadvantage may be not having other points of view/ways to approsch the problem/task
For the group a disadvantage may be that they do not have the opportunity for input, which in itself is a learning opportunity
1 for the trainee – inflexibility (of questioning the idea thrusted upon)that prevents my own ideas / ingenuity to be tried upon, even when I know that the one I am given to follow is stale/pedestrian
2 For the trainer (Michael) a possible disadvantage could be that of any of the prescription being wrong or misleading there is little chance of rectifying it and bad ideas/ instructions are given to proliferate
3 For the class a possible disadvantage could be that it is boring to the hilt as it is straight-jacketed and bereft of diverse opinion.
1 For the trainee (me) a possible disadvantage could be a loss of flexibility.
2 For the trainer (Michael) a possible disadvantage could be that total responsibility for the class now falls on the trainer.
3 For the class a possible disadvantage could be if the trainer is not up to standard, then the class will perform at a substandard level
1. For the trainee a possible disadvantage is mindlessly following the recipe and failing to observe possibilities that beg for exploration.
2. For the trainer a disadvantage might be a slide into the hazards of ‘I am right; you are wrong. Don’t argue or question’ – leading to a state of stagnation and obsolete training.
3. For the class it might be about being stuck with outdated information and tuition even though other advances are known to the members.
I agree with all comments below, but would add that typical experiences in every day life are not a do or die situation and so dont normally require PTO all the time, at the expense of BVS.
1/ .. may be no time taken for e+s=t so may select wrong PRR’ed approach, act on instinct or perhaps become incoherent.
2/ .. could be difficult to identify the technique in trainees problem solving – may rely on instinct rather than training
3/ .. may find little value in the exercise as few found time to notice options nor, being lost in the problem, are in a ready state to report on their experiences
For the trainee it may block questioning.
For the trainer it may block assessment
For the class it may affect morale