> if someone asks me for help on something because I'm more familiar with it, my spending five minutes to answer their question might save them an hour of troubleshooting.
Sure, but allowing them to take that shortcut can also be taken to encourage them not to think, to prompt them into asking next time as well and deprives them of a learning opportunity. Since memories form best with an emotional connection, a tough debugging session might be a better teacher than your five minutes.
This brings up a related question, though: to what degree are we responsible for colleagues' evolution? For me, there's a lot of grey area between people/competence manager and just being a team player in the true sense.
Sure, but allowing them to take that shortcut can also be taken to encourage them not to think, to prompt them into asking next time as well and deprives them of a learning opportunity. Since memories form best with an emotional connection, a tough debugging session might be a better teacher than your five minutes.
This brings up a related question, though: to what degree are we responsible for colleagues' evolution? For me, there's a lot of grey area between people/competence manager and just being a team player in the true sense.