Limits on lists - and change

For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press 3.
Alice Kahn

I've been reading the instruction sheets for our new VOIP telephone system. I am a little worried. Some of the tasks require up to ten steps. Setting a speed dial number, for example.

My unscientifically-proven observation is that you lose between 5% and 10% of people for every step in required to complete a task. One step - 90+% will complete it. Two steps - 80% - 90% will complete it. Which means that for jobs requiring 10 steps or more, very few people will have the tenacity to accomplish them successfully.

My own internal dialog in working on lists of instructions goes something like...

• OK, step one. Where are my reading glasses?
• Step two. Going good! Get a beer.
• On to step four. Wait, did I skip step three?
• Up to step five. Damn, this isn't working. Oh, I did step two wrong. I have to go back.
• Step six already. This is completely unintelligible. English is obviously not this writer's first - or second language!
• Step seven. To hell with it.
• And step eight - give it to a kid who can do the task without looking at instructions at all.
• Optional step nine - complain about technology in general.
• Step ten - have another beer.

The same 5% - 10% theory seems to work with surveys as well. 90+% of people will complete a 1 question survey. More than 10 questions, well, who has that kind of time and patience?

There is a very interesting article in Fast Company* about the relationship between the ability to change and exhaustion. Dan Heath (one of the Stickiness Brothers) writes:

You hear something a lot about change: People won’t change because they’re too lazy. Well, I’m here to stick up for the lazy people. In fact, I want to argue that what looks like laziness is actually exhaustion.

How complex can the technology tasks we ask our staff and students to master be? Are we finding the least complex tools available that will still let them do the job? What is the balance between power and complexity? (If GoogleDocs has even 80% of the functionality of Office, is that good enough for most students and staff?)

Or has the deluge of the new and work in keeping up simply exhausted all tenacity and perseverance from the modern learner?

*Thanks for link, Geezer Online!

------------------------------------------

I am giving Twitter another go. Since I whacked my previous account, I now have a new Twitter name: BlueSkunkBlog

Let's all sing together with Ricky.  "I will follow you, wherever you may go. Follow you wherever you may go"

Comments

[diane]

I also find it virtually (and really) impossible to complete a task that isn't broken down into smaller components - same problem I have with reading blog postings that are massive blocks of text.

Glad you're giving Twitter another go. I've found a lot of very useful resources there, and made a lot of professional and personal connections.

[Kathie]

I agree! Please keep steps to a minimum. We just got a new online circulation and cataloging program. It took me 10 clicks to merge each patron's old data with the new data. Materials were still checked out at the time of the merge, so we couldn't just start from scratch. AGH! And I only had 250 students. One school has over 800 students. I hope they outsourced this job.

[Technology Lists]

Technology will never fail, it needs some time to get adjust with it later it will become damn easy....It is a matter of time, once we are common with such instruments than it will become a daily routine process

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Diane,

I wonder about all of our attention spans sometimes. We say kids can't demonstrate sustained focus - I think I am just as bad!

Yeah, I will be most careful about whom I follow and what I post on Twitter this time. Old dogs need a few attempts to master new tricks sometimes.

All the best,

Doug

Hi Kathie,

We are upgrading (finally) to Destiny this summer throughout our district. I hope it goes easier than it seems to have gone for you!

Doug