This weekend I was helping out the UK teachers in their annual evaluation and I was inspired to write to you guys about the very important lesson to be had from this. In the DeRose Method every teacher needs to have a yearly evaluation so that they can maintain their certificates. This evaluation consists of a theoretical, written exam as well as practical exam in which you showcase your knowledge, skills, abilities, and techniques. It is one of the hardest processes I have ever encountered in any profession.
Professor DeRose created this tough yearly process because it is a very efficient way to ensure quality and consistency across the globe. It is a great opportunity to stimulate individuals to keep developing their profession as well as adding new knowledge and sharing of experience.
When I was at Ipsos this process inspired me to create an certification process for a high level insight activation workshop. For a country to be certified they needed to pay (out of pocket, not out of project) for me to visit the country 3 times to deliver the workshop. It was important that the country was paying this out of pocket as it showed the country’s willingness to invest in the training of its own employees, making my local resources even more receptive to what they were about to learn. During the first trip I would take over the process and show the local team how to do it, on the second I would share the duties and on the third I would mostly be an observer.
If they did this correctly they would be judged to be certified to execute this methodology.
What I feel that Prof DeRose’s process does (and what I tried to do also) is to create a system that teaches through the evaluation process. In the DeRose Method the evaluators are 3 more experienced teachers who help the person evaluated to up their game, teaching in the process. What I tried to do in Ipsos was to evaluate and train at the same time!
So why is this useful for you?
Well, firstly, most of you reading this are people who work with other people. You probably have, or will have, issues with quality control and be faced with the question: “how do I make sure to deliver consistent quality?”
The process that Professor DeRose created for his teachers is really powerful and interesting. Create a way of evaluating and teaching at the same time!
So give this a thought…. Is there a way that you could improve quality, create a quality control process and have this process become a teaching tool too?