In the last lesson you were asked to demonstrate your skill in PTO. Now check if you were able to PTO as instructed.
The orange you were asked to peel was:
Resolve the PTO paradox in 111 words.
The most important instruction for you to follow in this PTO was the specification of 111 words. You were not to know that, of course. In PTO one never really knows because one doesn’t get the opportunity to discuss things, as one does in normal situations.
One of the benefits of PTO, provided you have a skilled leadership team, is that anyone in the team can give anyone else in the team a PTO and it is done without question or discussion. This has advantages of speed, efficiency and effectiveness when the team is striving for a mutual objective. But it is not easy and does take PRR to produce a high level of PTO skill.
Obviously, so early in a leadership training sequence, one is not expected to get the ‘right’ answer as much as one is expected to just try and practise the skills.
DFQ #15:
What is the biggest insight about PTO that you have had so far as you’ve been doing these past few lessons?
The biggest insight about PTO for me is (just do it)
The biggest insight I have received so far is to follow instructions, withouth asking questions, yet at the same time think fast and complete the task.
PTO is not as simple and straight forward as it originally seemed. To get what I want done requires more PRR than I expected to deliver a workable PTO. Even something as simple as 111 words–who is the judge of what counts–is PRR 3 words or 1?
I managed to write in exact 111 words but not really sure if I have resolved the PTO paradox. I feel that as a member of a group, one should always prepare to take instructions for the sake of mutual benefit. The PTO skills help to ensure the tasks are done quickly as instructed but it is hard to really know if the intended goal was really achieved properly. One can carefully study the instruction and work out how to carry out the task effectively but would not really know what the instructor intends to achieved.
If there is no discusison or clarification of the PTO the team member receiving it may have a different interpretation than what was intended. The old story of a team member being asked to ‘put the rubbish on the back of the truck, take it down the road and then burn it’ comes to mind. The site and smell of a burning truck (not just the rubbish) is a good reminder to ensure your PTO is clear to all involved.
I felt that the importance of the PTO lesson was about 111 words. It made me pay attention and think about what was being asked – not always a strength of mine.
The PTO exercises thus far have reinforced for me the need to be cognizant that even well thought out directions can be misinterpreted. That is why PRR is so important if everyone hopes to execute flawlessly.
Hahaha! That I need to read the SPECIFIC and PRECISE details of instructions more carefully – and that this is a valuable lesson that can be passed on to others! Instead, I rushed to get the task done…
I managed to write exactly 111 words and I feel that I completed the task effectively and effieciently. What insight I received was that I can take instruction without question and complete it to the letter. Perhaps I need to look outside of this and broaden my horizons to include others viewpoints – to not take things so literally and look for the BVS in everything. PTO is showing me how to achieve this.
the biggest insight I found regarding the PTO was the fact that we need to be able to look at the precise details of the instructions and show pupils how to do the same. I read the information about the 111 words but didn’t actually go back to check if I’d met this target – which I didn’t as I only wrote 100 words! I also noticed in some of the other lessons that I didn’t meet the word limit requirements and just kept writing until I had finsihed what I wanted to say! It is important that we all know the specific requirements of a task and teach ways of how to understand this and that we pay attention to the instructions to complete the PTO task sufficiently and efficiently !