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Do You Give Good Directions'
Do you remember learning to drive a standardshift vehicle for the first time' Did you pop the
clutch out and it would stall'I remember trying
to learn how to drive a standard. Two years of
one person after another trying to teach me how
to gas, clutch and shift without stalling the car
before I could at least hit 5mph. It wasn’t
pretty. After getting frustrated with one person,
I would wait several months before I ran into
someone else who would say, “I can teach you.
Really, I can.”
The last person who ever tried to teach me was my
cousin. We had always lived on opposite ends of
the country, and I had just recently become
acquainted with her. We’d been hanging out for
several months, getting to know one another when
the conversation came up.
“I can teach you. Really, I can.”
I had heard that before! But she followed it up
with, “Everyone I have ever taught was driving
around within 30 minutes.”
Well, that was a boast I could not let go. After
all, NO ONE had ever been able to teach me before.
Boy, was she in for a surprise!
So, we went out to her car. She ushered me behind
the wheel, got in the passenger seat, and
instructed me to start the car. Easy enough so
far.
“Push in the clutch.” Done.
“Put it in gear.” Done.
“Give it a little gas.” Okay.
“Let out the clutch slowly.” Hey no one ever told
me to do that before.
“When you feel it grab, freeze your foot on the
clutch.” Hey! I could feel the gas/engine/wheels
start to grab a little.
“Now give it more gas till the car starts to roll.
” I’m rolling. I’m rolling!
“Once the car has a good roll going, let the
clutch out the rest of the way.” Yippee! I have
it moving!
“Unbelievable”, I had thought that day. I had
never before gotten anything but a movement and a
stall. But, you see, no one had every said
anything to me except “Let out the clutch as you
give it gas.” If you follow THOSE directions
literally, you are bound and destined to stall.
When giving directions, have you ever taken your
directions for granted' Did you know them so well
that you were unknowingly leaving some steps out'
Or did you do it knowingly, because you didn’t
want them to be too cumbersome or too insulting.
I once wrote a memo with step-by-step directions
for a computer task. This task was taught in a
class conducted just that previous Friday. When
the participants of the class had received that
memo, they had looked at it and threw their hands
up in defeat. Their thoughts, “We just learned
how to do this in only eight steps and now it’s
twenty-five!”
For those who knew how to do it on Friday, it
looked like I had invented steps. But they didn’t
truly need those directions. I needed to include
all the steps, because there were some people out
there who didn’t get it the first time around. I
had to clarify every step. And after explaining
this, those who complained about the extra
cumbersome directions, understood why it was
needed. But more importantly, the others got it
this time. Now everyone could do it.
So next time, try it your normal way. And if they
can’t “do it right”, step back and take a second
look at your directions. Maybe a couple more
details could make all the difference in the
world.