Let's Get Brainwashed.

Normally, I meet with someone and they tell me all about what they do - the steps for a process - and I write it down, organize it, make it look nice, and make it easy for someone to follow. Less common is when someone has already written something down and they give it me for review.

Someone sent over what they had written last week. It wasn't bad, but like most non-writers, it's written as if the reader is already familiar with many things, and misses a lot of steps or doesn't organize them logically. For many, their job is a kind of cloud, where all these activities happen, and not sequentially. So I try to bring order, and say, "Hey, I know this is kind of like a big circle to you, but if we organized it like this: 1, do this, 2, do that, 3, finish this - wouldn't that be helpful for someone new?"

So when I took this person's pre-written procedure and revamped it, he liked it a lot. In some instances, when people see their procedure written, they try to complicate it. "Yeah, I guess that's correct, but sometimes this happens, or sometimes that..." I wonder if people unconsciously make something complicated, or maybe I'm imposing a simplified structure to something. It's hard to tell. But this recent project was a success, and the guy was very happen with the questions I had, and the way it was rewritten.

Labels: balance