There’s an old
saying, usually attributed to Confucius, that goes something like “Give a
man a fish, and you’ll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you’ve fed
him for a lifetime.” There’s an important life lesson in that simple
statement. Some people translate it conceptually into something like
“Education is the most important thing you can give someone to better his
circumstances.” For me I don’t believe this gets to the heart of the
matter.

The translation
I like goes something like this:

Give a man the
answer, and he’ll only have a temporary solution. Teach him the principles that
led you to that answer, and he will be able to create his own solutions in the
future.

It’s
considerably less catchy, of course, but I think this is the true meaning of
Confucius’s statement.

Suppose a employee
comes asking for information that they could easily collect themselves if they
are given the right training and have the necessary skill set. However, you
decide to give them that information because you believe it is faster and
easier than trying to teach them how to collect that information. You have
given him a fish.

FAIL.

Sure, you were
able to help that person by solving their problem at the moment, yet you lost
time. You were ineffective. Switching costs stole your efficiency.

Why is this
considered a fail? If you provide all the answers and solve all the problems,
you are not helping the business. If you are the person that is always
providing information and yet there are others around you that could support it
with the right training and experience, you would be better served to spread
that wealth by teaching them how to fish.

We need to
transfer knowledge or skill from a single person to others. We need to share
that information. We need to train others. Turn them into teachers and allow
them to teach others within your organization. They need to teach others how to
become as good as they are at that particular role so they can grow and become
bigger and better at what they do for the company.

The next time
you are learning a new task or a new activity, something that no one else has
done before, take the time to find a peer or subordinate that can help you with
learning. They can grow alongside you building that new skill. They can share
the burden of how that particular process works. In that effort, you are
building relationships because relationships matter.

You are also
teaching them how to fish.