Bassist Charlie Mingus once said “Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.”

What Mingus said is what I call his Law of Creative Simplicity. Look at a few examples.

• Stuffing a sentence’s worth of thought  with a paragraph’s worth of abstract, redundant gobbledygook is commonplace. Translating a convoluted paragraph of jargon-dense engineer-speak into a simple sentence of clear English is creativity.
• Kicking Humpty Dumpty off the wall to become a complex pile of rubble—that’s child’s play. Restoring complex Humpty Dumpty rubble to simple Humpty Dumpty wholeness is a task too creative for all the king’s horses and men.

Creative Simplicity in Learning Design

In his keynote speech for the 2011 Lectora User Conference in Cincinnati, Elliott Masie illustrated creative simplicity like this [bracketed comments are mine]:

We are doing too much re-teaching when people already know the skills. Let’s not re-teach. Make sure that you are not packaging something old as new and overly inventing language that is brand-new to teach it. [That’s commonplace-JH].

Let’s figure out what learners need to know, how to map learner instincts and experience with new knowledge and …create the ability for learners to watch and listen to stories. We can take complex things and present them in very unique sequences via stories. [That’s creativity-JH]

Masie also outlined several emerging trends that define the fluid 21st-century learning workplace environment:

• Consistently high performers tend to seek out learning opportunities on their own, when they need them.
• Learner understanding and retention improve when learning occurs through peer collaboration.
• Inexpensive video is ubiquitous and a game-changer; it lets us tell a story live.
• Learners have become accustomed to outsourcing memorization requirements to “second-screen” devices (like smartphones and tablets)  that are always present and always on.

The 21st-Century Learning Environment

How do expanded learner demands and wide availability of technical options for connectivity and collaboration  affect the way we design learning? They push us toward synthesis and simplicity: the core principles of the Mingus Law.  21st-century learners expect their on-the-job learning opportunities to:

1. Be accessible: targeted for their job needs, easy to find, and available when they need them (and not before).
2. Help them collaborate by providing access to a forum, a wiki, or social media site where they can share experiences, generate ideas, and discuss best practices with colleagues.
3. Help them remember by providing well-designed checklists they can use to improve performance.
4. Not be confined by a corporate firewall. Even though “second-screen” devices can’t be controlled, their use can be leveraged to broaden learner capabilities.

How do you meet these expectations?

Stay tuned for articles about affordable technology, tools, and techniques you can use to bring each of these four expectations to reality in your course and curriculum design.

• Remove passive-aggressive whining from your repertoire of behaviors
• Change the climate in your personal ecosphere
• Generate whine-free fallout that will spread indiscriminately

Prework:  Grab a small notepad and a pen or pencil.

1.    Appreciate

• Take an intentional mental inventory of your possessions—tangible and intangible. (If you’re reading this on an electronic device in a building with a roof, indoor plumbing, an unlocked door and one or more unlocked windows, your list will be impressive by historic and global standards.)
• Pick any one of the items in your personal inventory. Write it down; then list the ways you particularly enjoy it.
• For that same item, note how how many ways you would miss it, and how different your life would be without it.
• Thank God for it. Appreciate what’s good; that’s the first antidote to whining.

2.  Contribute

• Form a mental picture of a person whose life you touch every day:  family member, best friend, neighbor, colleague, or the clerk at the local 7-Eleven..
• Write down one positive thing you can do for him or her. (If you know her well, that won’t be a problem. If you aren’t really sure, ask.  “What would make your day today?”
• Figure out what you can do to contribute toward her greatly improved day. Be creative.
• Make it happen.

3.   Take charge

• Recall  an ambition, a project, a dream from one of your “perfect day” reveries.
• Take charge of that project; write down one thing you can do today to move toward realizing that dream, reaching that goal .
• Tackle that one thing; do the work.

Remember:

Quiet passive-aggressive whining in the corner is both annoying and ineffective. (Seth Godin)

• That is being given for the first time to a new type of audience (schoolteachers, say, instead of engineers)
• In a facility that cannot be checked out beforehand

CAUTION:  Skipping these steps guarantees that your time at the mike will not live up to your expectations.

1. NAIL:  Keep your New Audience In the Limelight.

If you haven’t previously made this presentation to this type of audience, make sure that you know what they are interested in and they know what to expect.

• Tailor your topic specifically to this audience.
• Start with a clear and unambiguous description of your presentation in any promotional materials. If, for good and valid reasons, you’re talking about engineering design to schoolteachers, make sure they don’t expect to hear advice about developing lesson plans.
• Let them know at the outset exactly how they will benefit from what you have to say. Make it clear to the schoolteachers how the principles of engineering design apply to their classrooms and make them better teachers.

2. PROP:  PRovide your Own Props.

While you can usually rely on the presence of a projector (if it has been promised),  everything else you may need is up for grabs.

• Bring your own pointer/clicker. If it uses batteries, bring a spare.
• Bring your own flip chart. (You can buy table-top portable easels for less than $25 from Amazon.)
• Bring your own markers (at least two of each color you want to use).
• Have at least 20% more handouts than you expect to use. And place them on the table or in the seats  before you begin.

3. PUTT:  Practice Using The Technology.

If you depend on any unfamiliar technology or techniques, (new computer, new operating system, borrowed clicker/pointer, sound system, etc.), check it out ahead of time.

• Run all equipment through a practice run.
• Have a backup plan ready to roll out if the new or borrowed stuff bombs.
• Better still, minimize the use of untried technology in the first place. Go with the tried and true until you’ve tested the new stuff and found it satisfactory.

If the worst happens, and something doesn’t work, always retain PREP: Poise REgardless of Problems. Don’t get rattled and end the presentation prematurely; this cheats the audience. You have good content? Check. You have an engaging delivery? Check. So..regroup, execute your backup plan, and serve your audience a full helping of solid, useful information.

• That readers can follow
• Without hating the writer
• Or hacking the job

1. ASK: Answer Six Key questions.

2.  TELL: Test Every Line for Logic.

3.  KISS: Keep It Short and Simple

Subject-matter experts transfer knowledge in a flurry of words that sometimes obscure specific, tangible training objectives.

Knowledge in the abstract is great; but e-learning focuses on making the abstract specific, concrete and relevant to the learner and to the organization. The most effective way to do that is by telling a story.

To show you what I mean, let’s look at a simplistic example:  an SME’s description of a step in an invoicing process:

Before you enter an invoice into SAP, make sure that entries on the GR, IR, and PO match exactly.

In an e-learning environment, the novice learner’s eyes glide right over that statement. Too many acronyms, too little emphasis, and an easily forgotten abstract statement.

If this is an important point,why not present it in a job-related story ?

It’s three in the afternoon at Stentorian and Sons. You’ve got plenty of time to process this stack of paperwork, take care of a few emails, and get out in time to beat the traffic. Unbelievable–a day with no crises. A very good day.

“Hey, Bob! You need to check on this invoice. Biggie and Smalls Media, over on Ninth Street. Move the paperwork into SAP and get them paid. Today.  If we miss the early payment deadline, the penalty dollars are coming out of your next check. “

“Sure thing, Mr. Stentorian.”

Great. Tracking down paperwork for suppliers isn’t your favorite part of the job, but here it is. And there goes the very good day. The invoice is here, in the stack you were already processing: from Biggie and Smalls, total amount, quantity–all there. The purchase order from Sue in Purchasing  is easy to find, in the system under Biggie and Smalls, matching amount, quantity–all there. What else do you need?

INVOICE	PURCHASE ORDER	GOODS RECEIPT

Right. Track down the colleague who received the invoiced material and get the goods receipt for entry into SAP.

If you’re not ready to develop a story, at least replace the SME’s textbook statement with what I call a “bullet-list story.”

Payments require a three-way match in SAP to be complete. The documents required for the three-way match are provided by:

• The buyer raising the purchase order (PO)
• The supplier sending the invoice (IR)
• The employee receiving the goods receipt (GR)

A three-way match occurs when:

• You match the quantity, price, and details. on the IR with the quantity, price, and details on the PO
• You match the quantity, price, and details on the PO with the quantity price, and details on the GR

Even bullet-list stories work; they present the facts as steps in a plot that moves the invoice into SAP.

What’s important in a job-relevant story? Providing three things:

• Context (setting the scene for the process)
• Details (providing backstory for the process)
• Sequential steps (procedures, or the plot of the process)

A Job-Focused Story Makes Your Content Relevant and Meaningful

The more abstract or general your presentation is, the more unclear and boring it will be in a Click to continue environment. The more specific, job-relevant, and engaging your presentation is, the more clear and vivid it will be, even in the same environment. A  story (even one consisting of bullet points) is a reliable way to transform a paragraph of SME abstractions into learning that is directly applicable to job functions.

How can you use stories to transform SME-speak?

Have you heard about the Amazing REM? The story goes like this:

Instructional design drives e-learning gears.

Once upon a time, great minds in the kingdom invented an amazing Rapid e-Learning Machine.  The kingdom’s instructional designers (IDs) collected a number of 25-slide, text-dense PowerPoint slide sets designed for instructor-led courses and used them to conduct awe-inspiring demonstration for the admiring populace.

“This is amazing!” the people cried excitedly. “They put those PowerPoint slides  into the  hopper, click a few keys, and presto! Out comes e-learning  –a web-based training (WBT) course!”

The IDs proudly presented their amazing Click to Continue WBTs and touted the economic benefits of rapid development. Unfortunately, the economic benefits came at a hefty learning cost that the kingdom’s bean counters hardly noticed.

What’s the Problem?

If you’re the instructional designer in charge of an amazing REM, you understand the difficulties. Automatically-produced WBTs are typically heavy on web-based clicking and relatively light on learner-focused training.

But there are ways to heat up automatically-generated web-based training courses. The first area to tackle? course objectives.

Make the course objectives JOB performance-centric.

Here’s a typical “Course Objectives” page as it was originally output from the REM, based on an input PowerPoint slide. The objectives listed are indeed based on learner outcomes, but not on outcomes related to job performance.

They specify that the learner be able to:

• Describe steps
• Describe responsibilities
• Describe principles
• Print quick Reference Guides

In the first objective, why should the learner be able to describe the steps involved in WBT development? Not because of  job responsibilities that  include step description, but because the assessment for this course required step description.

These objectives are based more on course assessment performance than on job performance, and they don’t lead potential learners toward improving job-related skills.

Make Course Objectives Motivational.

A learner with very little skin in the game tends to have just about that much interest in the learning. So why not  make the stakes a little more meaningful by tying course objectives directly to job responsibilities?

This example (on the left) re-frames the content-based objectives shown earlier.  When you click the image to review the re-presentation, be sure to notice:

• The altered point of view/perspective
• The performance, rather than knowledge, focus
• The learner-directed progression from objectives to course content (jump directly into the content or review more detail about the objectives).

How do you spice up your course objectives?

This is the first in a three-part series about adding a little spice and a lot of job relevance to WBT  courses produced via rapid e-learning procedures. Share your ideas for coping with REMs.

Whacha got, Bubby? A stultifying stew that facilitates no learning, generates no interest, provides no memorable information, and makes my teeth hurt.

Enough is enough.

Forget safe and mind-numbing:

• Botox bullet points
• Bland clip art
• Boring regurgitation

Try creative and edgy:

• Storytelling
• Stunning visuals
• Challenging conversation

Fight the fog.

It’s not just meetings.  PowerPoint presentation paralysis and corporate drone are universal:  in web site content, in web-based training courses, in procedures, in user guides, in white papers.

Don’t give up. You can find tips for combating the drone here. And here.

You can join me in trying out this tool for spotting and eliminating jargon, technobabble, and empty multisyllables. (Warning: I’ve read mixed reviews about its effectiveness. But in this battle, anything is worth a try.)

Find perspectives on making PowerPoint presentations effective here.

Can I get a witness?

Share your ideas for thinning the corporate communication fog.

Slop and slush and sodden spray;
Slip and slide and scowl.
Gloomy, gritty, grimy day;
Grumble, groan, and growl.
Wan and winter-weary woe;
Blizzards, brash, and blust’ring…

But winter is unavoidable; we’re right in the middle of it here in the Midwest. And grown-up people don’t whine about the inevitable; they deal with it.

So in the interest of supporting maturity and promoting effective infowriting even during hard times,  let’s talk about three writing lessons you (and I) can learn from driving in gloomy, icy, depressing, and dangerous weather.

Keep trying until you get up that icy hill.
Have you ever been stuck in the middle of of writing an important piece? Since it’s the kind of thing you usually crank out as a matter of course , you never met one you couldn’t handle. Until now.

Now you’ve hit a slippery patch. Maybe a beginning that simply has no traction. Or a tricky transition that spins you out in the wrong direction. You may find that you’ve written yourself into an impassable snow bank and you have no logical next paragraph.

Back up. Work through the tricky, muddled part word by word, if necessary. Check the grammar. Evaluate the word choice. Take another look at the logic. Keep working until it feels right. You’ll know when you have traction.

Map a route to a clearly defined destination.
Winter is no time for joyriding. And infowriting is not a task for the aimless. To avoid getting lost in a blinding blizzard of words, be very intentional about every one. Make sure you know what you’re doing before and while you’re doing it.

Every infowriting task, by definition, has a clearly defined, user focused purpose –to help readers get work done. To reach that destination successfully:

• Specifically define what you want your readers to do.
• Craft every word with the end in mind.
• Don’t take side trips.

That leads to the final lessons in this little quick reference post…

The #1 rule? Pay attention.
Especially in low visibility, high -challenge conditions like winter driving and difficult writing assignments. Lack of attention and intention can very easily end disastrously, with writing that wastes  the reader’s time (best case) or steers the reader away from her desired goal (worst case).

Let’s wrap up with rule #30: Avoid skids.
The experts say the best way to avoid skids (and stay out of trouble on the road generally) is to drive smoothly. RTA says this:

True professionals drive so seamlessly that you do not feel anything when they shift, turn, or brake. Plan ahead, watch carefully, and slow down … no matter what the road’s surface condition is, skids are caused by driver error.

A good writer, like a good driver, is a smooth operator.  She starts with panache and power and glides smoothly into high, navigating from one point to another easily. No sharp turns. No hard acceleration, no sudden braking. No skids.

A good writer, like a good driver, gets that way through practice. And winter is a great time to practice both skills, preferably in a safe place, like an empty parking lot…or a writing journal…while we wait for spring.

Let us love winter, for it is the spring of genius.” (Pietro Aretino)

You ever stop to think about the psych/sociology behind professional conferences like the 2009 STC Technical Communication Summit?

During the first week in May, adult men and women from all over the civilized world (which is of course defined as those locales where technical communicators can make a decent living) drive, fly, float, train, and sometimes even walk to gather themselves together as one large, noisy hive organism with a four- or five-day lifespan and a HUGE carbon footprint. They did this in the face of economic reprecession, global warming, and an on-again, off-again viral pandemic.

Was it worth the time, trouble, and cost? Absolutely!

(Of course, I did minimize cash outlay and maximize ROI by driving down to Atlanta, bunking with my Dad in Gwinnet County, and commuting via MARTA to Conference Center at the downtown Hyatt Regency.)

Here’s a sampling of a few Conference highlights that I particularly enjoyed.

• Monday, May 4:
  Keynote Speaker David Pogue’s talk was about the power of simplicity was the antithesis of a text-dense, bullet-rich Powerpoint ordeal. I especially liked the way he took Microsoft’s penchant for requiring multiple-clicks-for-one-simple-function to its ludicrous extreme.
• Tuesday, May 5:
  DOD Innovation Evangelist Mark Oehlert shared fascinating information about addictive games where “learning is the drug.” and tools we can use to create games that can improve performance in our own workplaces. I was particularly impressed by this quote (one of the many he cited):

   

  The opposite of imposed structure is not chaos…the opposite of an imposed structure is an emergent structure. (Andrew McAfee)

• Wednesday, May 6:
  Alyson Riley (IBM Corporation) explored a whole new world of scenarios: using them internally to help shape information architecture and identify the most effective content.

I attended eight sessions, presented three times at the Instructional Design and Learning (IDL) SIG progression, and absorbed more information than I could digest. Fortunately, audio and visual (PowerPoint) content from all the sessions (except for the panels, progressions, and workshops)  will be available on the STC website, via SUMMIT@aClick.  And it will all be free to registered 2009 Summit attendees.

(I’m not sure yet what the requirements are for non-attendees, but if you check back here within a few weeks,  I’ll have a specific Web address and access directions.)

Prolific blogger (and podcaster and chapter president and conference speaker) Tom Johnson just set up a directory wiki for tech writing blogs. Check it out and add your blog to the list.

(BTW, when does Tom find time to sleep? or work? or … whatever? He’s an amazing example of right-brain/left-brain balance and organized creativity. And a valuable resource for the tech writing community. Thanks, Tom!)

[tags]Tom Johnson,wiki,technical writing,stc[/tags]