Socratic or Platonic?

I was having a discussion with a friend the other day and he was telling me about his boss asking him to do a certain task at work. My friend has been doing this sort of thing, programming a database, for well over ten years and knows this particular project inside and out. But his boss likes to act like he knows more about it. Perhaps this is because he is the boss and figures that his must validate his being in charge by acting like he knows more than anyone else (question for another time - does a manager really need to know more about the job than the people they are managing?). The manager "helped out" in this case by writing up a little dialog and asking a bunch of questions which he answered himself. As it was a dialog with himself, I'm not sure this qualifies as using the Socratic method.

As we talked about this, I joked that the manager seemed to be trying to use the teaching method used by the famous Greek philosopher ... but I couldn't remember his name. Then I mistakenly said, "Plato." But he wasn't using the "Platonic method" (if there is a such a thing) but seemed to be trying to use the "Socratic method" (except Socrates didn't answer his own questions). This led to some more funny observations:

• Could you successfully use the Socratic method in this situation?
• What about telling a story using the Socratic method?
• How about writing a report using the Socratic method?
• Could you imagine a builder coming to your house to do some work and you would use the Socratic method to get him to do the work you wanted? I don't think so.
  

There is an interesting web page about using the Socratic method in a class room. The writer goes through a complete scenario.

Then I went back to my "Platonic method" of teaching. Maybe that is where the teacher just remains friends with the student. That sounds like a good idea, too.