Experiment in Clarity

Most of us spend our day taking direction from someone for something. We are directed by laws, procedures, guidelines and common sense. Often times we have printed instructions to guide us through a process; other times we have to depend upon our comprehension and memory of someones verbal instruction/direction.

Instructions - immediately I am drawn to the image of my father and brothers trying to put together the Christmas bike or doll carriage. It was bad enough if one of them got hold of the instructions by himself; but to leave the instructions open to interpretation by three tired and frustrated men on Christmas Eve was disaster.

That's the key: interpretation. I have a lot of respect for those people charged with the responsibility of creating instructions for the assembly of "things". The words must be so clear and so concise; and the vocabulary of the most common denominator. Clarity, which can be removed from interpretation, is primary for any instruction. Which right to you mean?

I pride myself in giving very clear driving directions to my house. There is nothing worse than having a guest show up frustrated and frazzled after driving around in the neighborhood for an hour. I have found that landmarks are important. Also, while giving the instructions I make sure I stop intermittently to confirm their understanding. I haven't lost a guest yet.

Verifying and confirming understanding gives you an edge on getting the right message communicated. But what if you can't ask any questions? And you can't point or gesture? In my early days as a communications and marketing trainer, we would use a simple exercise to heighten awareness of clear and concise directions. Let's try it!

Take a blank piece of paper; 8 1/2" X 11" (pull a sheet out from your printer). Lay the sheet horizontally or landscape view on the surface in front of you. You will need two different color pens for this exercise; you may use red and blue, black and blue, black and red or any other combination you choose.

With Color 1 of your choice, draw at the center of the page a circle. The circle should allow white space in about 1/4 of the page to the top, to the bottom and on both sides of the shape.

Take Color 2 and to the right of the circle, as close to the center of the outer circumference and approximately an inch from the circle itself, make a point and label it "A".

From the top of Point "A", draw a line, at an angle upward, cutting through the right side of the circle and coming out of the top, left side of the circle. Draw a similar line, however, angling downward, beginning at the bottom of Point "A", and dissecting the circle on the bottom, left side.

On the right side of the circle, where the line intersects with the circle itself, label the top intersection "B" and the bottom intersection "C".

On the left side of the circle, where the line intersects with the circle itself, label the top intersection "E" and the bottom intersection "D".

We are done. How did you do? How did I do at giving instructions? Oh, you need to see the finished product to compare? Check below the blog achives on the left side of this page to see how your diagram compares with my diagram. I'm interested in hearing about your results.