I’ve always struggled with knowing what basic knowledge of a subject is. By that I mean: what are the things that you learnt about this subject when you first started studying it?

When I was in my 20s, I would spend time in bookshops, leafing through school textbooks for fun (yes, I was that kind of young adult). And I would watch my friends teach their young children how to add, and try to remember learning basic arithmetic myself. And I would realise: all the knowledge that I took for granted as having known since birth, was actually learnt a lot later than that, and was taught to me through the blood, sweat and chalkdust of teachers and parents.

(Not actually chalkdust, I’m not that old. Whiteboard marker smudges? I taught for a while, and got home most days with a whiteboard pen smudge somewhere on my face. Usually in a colour that I knew I hadn’t touched since first thing that morning.)

And so, when I was in my 20s I formed the Not So Glaringly Obvious rule, which simply states, ‘The knowledge you think you were born with, you actually learnt at GCSE’. Take, for example, the differences between animal and plant cells. Or how to multiply brackets to expand them. Or how to wire a plug. All learnt during GSCE, all filed in my head as ‘well everyone knows that stuff’ – hence the Not So Glaringly Obvious rule.

Now, I’m finding the need for a new equivalent rule for professional learning. You see, for years I’ve been happily work-managing people who have been in the professional environment for a while, and who already have most or all of the skillset they need to do the job. But a few months ago, I was given someone very new to professional life, who needed to learn a lot to get up to speed on their job.

And I found myself in the same position I’d been in in my 20s: realising quite how much I’d learnt in the years since I started work. Principles that seem obvious to you and me, like: emails must make sense to people other than the writer; cancelling a meeting five minutes after it was expected to start isn’t acceptable behaviour; your brain is an asset to the workplace and you’re expected to use it. But at some point, I must have learnt these for the first time.

And possibly most of all: while you may have good managers and mentors if you’re lucky, no one will take as close an interest in your own professional development as you do, so you should work on this strategically and proactively.

So, as a first step towards crystalising and acknowledging some of the things I have learnt in my time at work, I present to you the Sneaky-Verb-Ninja schema of solutions to work problems. One of these will fit almost any problem:

1. The Chatty Cathy: Talk to the right person, which could be managers, colleagues, decision-makers, mentors and coaches. Somewhere between 50-80% of problems can be resolved this way; the challenge is identifying who the right person is. (NB: bringing biscuits ¹ to a meeting is rarely unwelcome)
2. The Information Hoarder: Know as much as possible about everything going on around you. Mostly achieved by 1
3. The Supermanager: Spend time in obsessive project planning and forward projection mode. This is useful for the standard project management reasons, but don’t underestimate the amount of reassurance it will provide to you
4. The ‘Somebody Else’s Problem’ Approach 1: kick it up the hierarchy. Sometimes only senior management have a big enough crowbar to bend people to your will
5. The ‘Somebody Else’s Problem’ Approach 2: throw it to the colleague who thought it was a big deal in the first place. This is the quickest way of finding out if something is actually a big deal
6. The Recluse: book in time to sort it in your calendar so no one will disturb you. Book a meeting room if you’re feeling fancy, or if meeting rooms come with biscuits ¹
7. The Not-actually-sorry: The saying ‘ask for forgiveness rather than permission’ rule is a classic for a reason. This works very well when surrounded by red tape / managers who are wrong
8. The Grazing Herd Member: ignore it, but keep it in the corner of your eye just in case it attacks
9. The ARGH!: Accept you’re not in the right mindset and have a cup of tea and a biscuit ¹ instead. You’ll come back with a clear head.