Training Isn’t a One-Time Thing

Introduction

Let me tell you something I wish I’d figured out a lot earlier—people don’t just get better by osmosis. They don’t soak up knowledge just by standing near a seasoned surveyor or hearing a process mentioned once in a staff meeting. If you want a top-notch team—from the folks staking corners to the ones answering phones—you’ve got to build a real culture of training. That means consistent shadowing, casual mentorship, and making sure every question is met with an answer instead of a sigh. It’s not about making time for training once in a while. It’s about making training part of how you do the work every single day.

You Can’t Teach What You Don’t Make Time For

I once handed a new guy a GPS rover, waved vaguely at the field, and said, “You’ll figure it out.” He didn’t. Not his fault either. The poor kid looked like he’d been handed an alien artifact. It was a humbling reminder that—especially with the complexity and precision of today’s surveying equipment—expecting someone to simply absorb the process on their own is unrealistic. In this industry, where both data accuracy and safety are non-negotiable, making assumptions about what people know can set the team back fast.

And frankly, that’s how I was trained—sink or swim. I’d get tossed into a workflow with minimal instructions, told to “just get it done,” and left to hope my intuition lined up with best practices. Except, I had a few bruises to show for it. My first few jobs, I spent as much time recovering from errors as I did learning the craft. There’s a certain toughness that comes from adversity, true, but there’s also inefficiency, lost productivity, and a pile of headaches that could’ve easily been prevented with the right up-front guidance.

Back in my early days, I learned by messing up. I botched a benchmark so bad it threw off our closure and cost us half a day re-shooting. That lesson stuck with me—the value of every small detail and the importance of understanding “why” every control point, sequence, and check exists. But it could’ve been taught a lot less painfully if someone had taken five minutes to walk me through the process, explained the implications, and given me the opportunity to ask questions from the start. The difference between “figure it out” and “let’s walk through this together” isn’t just comfort, it’s operational consistency, data integrity, and a company reputation built on excellence instead of luck.

I used to think trial by fire built toughness. Turns out, it mostly just builds resentment—or worse, fear of asking questions. Team members become reluctant to speak up, worried they’ll look incapable or slow down the workflow. These days, I know better: training isn’t something you do once and check off. It’s a living part of your culture. Continuous mentorship, structured shadowing, and space to learn without judgment are every bit as critical to technical success as having the right equipment or software on hand. If you don’t make time for it, you’ll end up making time for mistakes—and in our line of work, some mistakes have a way of multiplying if you let them.

Don’t Assume They Know—Or That They’ll Ask

One of my techs once misread a job order and set up on the wrong control point. When I asked what happened, he said, “I didn’t know what that note meant, and I didn’t want to sound dumb.” That moment hit home. It wasn’t just a minor setback—it exposed a flaw in our team culture. I realized I’d fostered an environment where it felt safer to keep quiet and push through uncertainty than to admit you didn’t know and risk looking inexperienced. In technical fields like surveying and project management, that silence can be costly. A single misunderstood note or unchecked assumption can ripple through a project, impacting schedules, budgets, and client trust.

This isn’t only about new hires. Veterans, subject matter experts, and even high performers taking on new roles can hesitate to speak up—whether it’s pride, nerves, or simply not wanting to look like they’re slowing down the workflow. That’s how avoidable errors creep in and minor miscommunications turn into hard-to-fix problems. Moments like that make it clear: encouraging open communication isn’t just a “nice to have”—it’s a foundational requirement for accuracy and quality.

So I made a conscious shift. I started calling out curiosity as a strength, not a weakness. I openly valued every question, no matter how basic. During project briefings and job huddles, I’d encourage our team to flag anything unclear and to step up if they needed a walk-through. I admitted when even I didn’t have all the answers. That transparency set a new standard for the team, and the shift was almost immediate—fewer mistakes, better collaboration, and genuine improvements in morale.

That single adjustment continues to pay off. Now, when someone is unsure or spots something odd in a workflow, they know to ask and trust that the team will respond with patience and support. In a business where details matter and every decision has downstream impact, a culture built on asking, learning, and growing together is the surest way to turn silent uncertainty into proactive, confident problem solving.

Implementing Structured Shadowing

Shadowing is one of the best training tools we’ve got—and it doesn’t cost a dime. In a field driven by both technical precision and teamwork, we saw huge gains by making shadowing part of our standard onboarding process, not just a nice-to-have. Every new team member—whether their role is boots-in-the-mud fieldwork or back-office project support—gets paired with a senior employee for at least their first full project cycle. But shadowing isn’t just passive observation. We expect new hires to engage actively: watch procedures, ask real questions, and participate in decisions, all with a mentor there to guide and answer.

The impact is immediate and practical. One admin who shadowed our project manager for two weeks didn’t just learn the steps—she absorbed the context behind every client call, every field note, and every project checkpoint. Now, she’s not only coordinating communications and tracking field statuses, but also identifying and correcting errors before they ever reach my desk. That’s the value of proximity learning: it fast-tracks skills and builds confidence right where the stakes are real, not hypothetical.

To make shadowing genuinely effective, mentors have to do more than demonstrate workflows—they need to explain the “why” at each step. Why do we check this control point twice? Why is this project folder organized that way? Why do we escalate certain issues? When the reasoning is clear, instructions become durable knowledge. That context is what transforms “I can copy this process” to “I understand how and why it matters,” and that level of comprehension is what sets apart high-performing teams in complex, technical industries like ours.

Mentorship as a Daily Habit, Not a Title

You don’t need a formal mentorship program to build one-on-one growth into your day. You just need folks who care.

I encourage my seasoned folks to treat daily tasks as teachable moments. When someone’s drafting a plat, talk through the decisions. When reviewing field data, explain the quality checks. The more people understand why they’re doing something, the better they get at doing it well.

I also like what I call “walk-and-talks.” Whether it’s heading out to a job site or walking to the coffee machine, I use that time to ask questions, offer feedback, or just listen. It’s casual, but it works.

Mentorship doesn’t have to mean hours of meetings. It just means being available, interested, and willing to guide.

Make Time for Training (Or Pay for the Lack of It Later)

We’ve carved out time for training—short Friday morning refreshers, post-project debriefs, and occasional lunch-and-learns with sandwiches and lessons served side by side.

It’s not corporate. It’s not complicated. It’s just consistent.

Sometimes we run through recent jobs and ask, “What went well? What would we do differently?” Other times, we pull out a plat or run a quick how-to on something like setting up project folders or using our equipment inventory software.

These bite-sized sessions are easy to digest and build a rhythm of learning. Because if you don’t invest in training now, you’ll be spending double fixing problems later.

The Best Teams Are Always in Training

The sharpest folks I’ve ever worked with were the ones who never stopped asking questions. Not the ones who acted like they had all the answers.

In our shop, we’ve built a culture where learning is baked into the workflow. Where nobody’s too experienced to sit in on a refresher, and nobody’s too new to offer insight. That kind of humility and hunger is what keeps the whole machine running smoothly.

So here’s my challenge: Think of one thing you’re still holding onto—some task or process you haven’t taught anyone else. This week, show someone how to do it. Let them try. Let them stumble. And then let them fly.

That’s how you grow a crew that’s not just productive, but proud.