From “Do It This Way” to “What Happens If…?” Rethinking Trade Training

From “Do It This Way” to “What Happens If…?” Rethinking Trade Training

In a recent Flow Lab episode, we had the pleasure of talking with Leilani Orr and Ty Branham from the GRIT Foundation, a nonprofit that runs hands on trade camps for 12 to 17 year olds. We invited them on to talk about workforce shortages and getting young people interested in the trades. What stuck with us most, though, was how intentional they are about how people learn.

Listening back, a theme kept popping up: the best training does not start with instructions. It starts with curiosity.

That is true for kids learning to cut PVC, and it is just as true for a new tech learning to run a blower door.

The problem with “just do it this way” training

If you learned a trade the old school way, you probably recognize this pattern. A new helper shows up, and the training sounds like this:

“Hold this. No, not like that, here, I will do it.”

“Do it this way. Do not ask why. Just keep up.”

Work gets done that way, but people do not always grow into real problem solvers. They learn to memorize a series of moves instead of understanding what those moves actually do.

In airtightness and building performance work, that becomes a big limitation. It is not enough to know how to set up a fan, hit 50 pascals, and write down a number on a sheet. You need people who can look at that number and wonder what is going on in the building.

They need to ask things like:

• Why is this result higher or lower than I expected?

• What else could be influencing this pressure besides leakage?

• Is this telling me about the building, or is this telling me I missed something in the setup?

That kind of thinking does not grow in an environment where questions are treated as a nuisance. It grows where questions are encouraged, where mistakes are expected, and where curiosity is part of the job.

That is the world GRIT tries to create in a single day of camp.

What GRIT camps get right about learning

At a GRIT camp, kids do not sit through a lecture about carpentry, electrical work, or HVAC. They pull on safety vests and glasses, get a name badge, and start building something they can actually carry home.

One of Ty’s favorite exercises is amazingly simple. First, they hand the kids a piece of lumber and a thick marker. The kids measure, mark their cut, and feel pretty confident. Then comes the question: “Where exactly is the line?” With a fat ink mark, there is no clear edge. They make the cut anyway and see how far off they are.

Only after that do they switch to a pencil. Same board, same measurement, but now the line has a crisp edge. The cut is much closer. Nobody had to give a long speech about accuracy. The kids felt the difference.

The whole day works like that. Mentors do not hover and correct every move. They ask questions.

Which side of the line should you cut on?

If you flip the board, will the measurement still work?

Why do you think a two by four is not actually two inches by four inches?

The camp feels like real work, not school. Kids are using PVC cutters, torches, tape measures, and blower wheels. They move around, carry materials, solve little problems, and make a mess. It looks like a jobsite. By the time they are decorating their finished “box” with wires, pipes, switches, and drawings, they are tired and proud. It feels like it took real effort, because it did.

The mentors learn too. Many of them told Leilani and Ty that they had forgotten how skilled they really are. Watching a teenager struggle just to open a PVC cutter will do that. It forces you to slow down, think about the basics, and explain them in a way that actually sticks.

Why curiosity first teaching works in building science

All of this might sound like good teaching theory, but it is also very practical for our world of pressure and flow.

People tend to remember what they struggled with. If you once cut on the wrong side of a line, you will probably think about that on the next cut. If you left a screw inside a blower wheel and had to go back two hours later to figure out what that horrible noise was, you are unlikely to forget that lesson. The same is true for a tech who misreads a manometer, or tapes off the wrong opening on a blower door test and has to redo the work.

Curiosity first training uses that simple human truth. Instead of trying to prevent every mistake, you create a safe space for mistakes, then you help people think about what happened.

It also grows better problem solvers. Buildings are messy. You will see leaky returns, missing dampers, odd baselines, wind effects, poorly connected attics, and all sorts of field realities that do not match the tidy diagrams in a manual. A tech who has been taught to ask “what if” is much more prepared for that than someone who has only seen perfect examples in a classroom.

You want technicians who can say, “This number does not make sense to me. What else could be going on here?” That is a curiosity question. You encourage it by building curiosity into the way you train.

Bringing the Socratic method to your jobsite

You do not need to run a youth camp to borrow GRIT’s approach. You can bring the same spirit into your own shop, training room, or jobsite with a few small shifts.

One easy change is to start your training with a challenge instead of a talk. For example, on a blower door 101 day, take your team into a house or small building and ask everyone to predict how tight or leaky it is. Have them call out where they think the big leaks are. Write the guesses down. Only then set up the fan, run to 50 pascals, break out the smoke, and go hunting together.

When the final numbers come up, ask who was closest and why they think the results landed where they did. You have just turned a basic test into a puzzle everyone participates in.

You can also turn many of your instructions into questions. Instead of saying, “Set the fan up here,” try, “Where would you put the fan if you wanted the most representative reading, and why?” Instead of, “Tape this off,” try, “What happens to our test if this stays open?” The work still gets done, and you still correct people when safety or quality is on the line, but you give them space to think for themselves along the way.

Finally, consider creating a small “practice zone” where mistakes do not cost you callbacks. That might be a spare room, a mock wall with intentional leaks, or a test rig in your shop. Let new techs set up fans, choose rings, forget to seal a chase, and watch what happens on the gauge. When things do not look right, resist the urge to swoop in and fix it immediately. Ask first, “What do you notice? What do you think is happening?”

You can always fix it later. The point is to let them notice and reason it through.

Turning training into a two way investment

One of the things Leilani and Ty shared is that mentors often walk away from GRIT camps more energized about their work than when they showed up. They see kids light up when they cut pipe or braze for the first time. They remember old stories about their own mistakes. They are reminded that their skills matter.

The same thing can happen inside your company. When senior techs get to do more than bark orders, when they get to share stories and ask questions and see light bulbs go on, training feels less like a burden and more like passing on a craft.

On the other side, apprentices who are encouraged to ask why, and who are allowed to make mistakes in a supported way, tend to stick around. They feel like they are learning a real skill set, not just being used as an extra pair of hands.

Curiosity first training can improve your diagnostics, your workmanship, and your culture at the same time. It is not a new tool or a new standard. It is just a different way to use the tools and standards you already have.

If you want to go deeper

If this resonates and you want to bring more curiosity into your work, a few simple next steps can help:

• Listen to the Flow Lab conversation with GRIT to hear more stories and examples in their own words, and share the episode link with your team as a starting point for changing how you train.

• Take one upcoming training session and consciously turn it into a question first exercise instead of a lecture, and save the plan in your training resource library so your whole team can reuse and refine it.

• Look at how you currently teach blower door and building science work, and ask yourself where you can safely let people struggle a little so the lesson sticks.

Whether you are handing a teenager their first PVC cutter or a new tech their first manometer, the principle is the same. Do not just tell them how to do the job. Help them get curious about why it works the way it does.

That is where real learning starts, and it is where the next generation of skilled, thoughtful tradespeople will come from.

Want to hear the full story?

Listen to our conversation with Leilani Orr and Ty Branaman on The Flow Lab Podcast – now streaming wherever you get your podcasts.

The Flow Lab Podcast by Retrotec

Retrotec has launched The Flow Lab podcast to connect you with the leading minds within the building science industry.  We interview everyone from long-time experts to the newest innovators, exploring the latest technology advancements and industry news. Subscribe on the Retrotec YouTube channel and wherever you listen to podcasts. Like and subscribe to become part of the Flow Lab community!