Explaining How Things Work: How To Do It And Why It Matters

When you can't stop working...

I went to my local airport to go on a business trip. I noticed some elderly ladies in Departures struggling to use the self-check-in machine.

My user training instincts kicked in. Using my own passport as an example, I showed them how to check in and get their boarding passes. I stood by helping them get theirs in the same way that I take my employers'' customers through our product''s workflow.

The shoe was on the other foot a few years later. I bought a new washing machine. The manual was in every language except English. Using the product name on the invoice, I found a video review of that washing machine on YouTube where someone demonstrated how to use it. Within 5 minutes, I was operating the washing machine.

Today, technology is everywhere. We use computers in the office, various appliances at home, ATMs, ticket machines, and gas pumps in the street, and smartphones in our pockets.

Explaining how something works has become an essential leadership skill. Customer service staff explain how technology works to solve their customers' problems. Sales representatives do the same to persuade customers to buy or use their products. Managers help their colleagues and train their subordinates on how to use various applications.

Demonstrating and training people how to use unfamiliar applications is part of most change management projects.

It All Starts With A Process

Explaining how something works always starts with a process. There are two variants.

The Instructional Variant (training someone to use a system): the emphasis is on showing your audience how to get a specific result out of that system. I showed the ladies how to get their boarding passes printed and issued by the machine.

The Promotional Variant (selling someone a system): the emphasis is on showing how the system provides a business outcome. If I were selling automated check-in machines for airports, I would show my audience the benefits of these machines: passengers can check themselves in so the airline needs fewer check-in agents.

The Instructional Variant

Imagine we are writing a user guide for a wheelbarrow.

Any act of instruction begins with a learning aim. When planning a training event, this is best summarized in a 'can do' statement.

'By the end of this training session, the user can load, unload and maneuver a wheelbarrow.'

This is how we would describe the main process from start to finish.

'Put the load into the wheelbarrow''s bucket. Take hold of the handles and lift them up with the entire weight of the bucket resting on the wheel. Walk forward, pushing the wheelbarrow to your destination. On arrival, lift the handles above your head. The load will fall out of the bucket.'

Often, there are variations of the main operating processes.

'Where the load is a single, solid object, lift it and place it carefully into the bucket. On arrival, lift the load out of the wheelbarrow to prevent damage or injury.'

Here is a care instruction: 'Oil the wheel''s axle to ensure that it will turn easily.'

Here is a safety instruction: 'Bend your knees when lifting the handles and keep your back straight when pushing the wheelbarrow.'

Identify these divisions clearly using headings, captions, etc. with the main process coming first.

Also, be sure to include any prerequisites to operate the solution, such as installing drivers, inputting data, or integrating it with other applications.

The Promotional Variant

Woman gives a presentation during a business meeting

Here is how we demonstrate a wheelbarrow to a building firm''s buyer.

'This wheelbarrow is designed to enable your staff to move heavy loads without injury or exhaustion. Minimal training is required to operate this equipment."

"Place the load in the bucket. Lift the handles until the weight rests on the wheels. Push the vehicle forward to your destination. Lift the handles to empty the bucket."

"We have moved this heavy load from one place to the other quickly, quietly, without injury or carbon emissions.'

This description includes the main process and states the product''s benefits.

Do It Yourself 1: How Good Are The Processes You Work With?

Think of some of the processes you deal with personally. They might be online instructions to submit an insurance claim or request a service. How easy are these instructions to understand? Where is the problem? How straightforward is the language? Was each step described clearly? Were all the prerequisites given?

Do It Yourself 2: How Good Are Your Processes?

'Now think of the processes you are responsible for. When you train a new colleague how to use an application or device, how well does she understand it? Are you sure you told her everything? Did you tell her each step in the correct order?

Try writing that process down. Writing is a great way to separate an idea from yourself and look at it as an independent object. What do you need to start the process? What does it produce? What is it for? Have you included all the steps? Are there any parts that you don''t feel you really understand?

You might be in for a surprise!

I''d love to know how you got on. Feel free to connect with me and tell me about it!

Published February 23, 2022

Educational Consulting Is Knocking: Should You Answer? 5 Things You Should Know

As they say, life is what happens when you are busy making other plans. In spring of 2016, I had just returned eastside after spending some time in California and found myself at a crossroads. Would I return to a full-time role or hang my own shingle as an independent educational consultant?

Although the inherent lack of job security certainly provoked great pangs of anxiety in me, I decided nonetheless to try my luck as an education consultant. I had, over the years, developed deep skills in coaching teachers and school leaders, and I wanted to try to utilize those skills across organizations and schools. In what other capacity would I have had the same opportunity to assess American curriculum schools in Dubai, help the Ministry of Education of East Timor reform its middle years 21st-century curriculum, and/or work with the Lakota nation?

Sometimes it takes an outsider to an organization to accurately assess the needs of that institution and to offer solutions to pain points that an insider might not see. However, consulting also is not without its share of drawbacks.

Here are five things you need to know about educational consulting before diving into this pool:

You Need A Brand

Educational consultant talks to teachers

As says WID global marketing expert Lisa Perry, “everyone” is not your customer. Education is a vast and growing industry. There is K–12 and higher education. There are those who advocate for education policy, support school network operations, market and then train educators on various school support products/resources, and still others who are practitioners of teaching and learning from cradle to senior daycare. What kind of consultant would you be? What pain would you solve? With whom would you work in education—policymakers, advocacy organizations, EdTech, government, publishers, schools, districts, and/or states?

You Might Juggle Different Tasks And Organizational Cultures

Educational consultant talks to a client

Different strokes for different folks. Some education consultants thrive in providing a service to clients. Often, this means working with boards to develop strategic plans and/or to engage in school improvement conversations, coaching teachers, training people, and/or developing the leadership capabilities of others. Some education consultants provide products such as writing a curriculum or designing a data assessment tool. Some consultants provide both such as those who might train others on the use of assessment tools, digital learning management systems, and/or a new textbook series.

Consider if you work best as an independent consultant, sub-contractor, and/or as a part- or full-time employee. As an independent, you work out the details of your work with the client. You are responsible to yourself/them. As a sub-contractor and/or part-time consultant, you will still have some say in assignments you accept but this work may come with certain meeting/teaming responsibilities which can be a challenge when working on several contracts. As a full-time employee, you may receive benefits and job security but have much-reduced autonomy. Cleopatra was bitten by a snake; pick your poison.

You Must Network

Woman works as an educational consultant

Consultants who are not full-time employees need to be experts in three things: practicing their craft/area of expertise, invoicing, and looking for their next gig. I know of many consultants who have worked long term with just one or two organizations. However, if a consultant must work across organizations to earn a living, they will want to increase their networking while maintaining their existing portfolio of work/clients. Consulting is by nature a great way to rapidly expand one’s network of peers especially if one is working as part of a consulting team. Post original content and curate that of others on social media daily.

You Will Have Work Cycles

Man works as an educational consultant

One never knows when a consulting opportunity will materialize or end. If an organization decides to rebrand itself, and you do not fit that image, you are easily expendable. Other times, one might find a new client and/or contracting firm to be a bit disreputable. Much like B actors, get used to being fired. Have networking leads in the hopper to ease the anxiety that will come with lost revenue.

Winter is always coming. I lost approximately 90% of my income due to initial COVID-19 shutdowns, and, while much of that work has returned, waves of subsequent COVID-19 mutations still have led to many sleepless nights. At other times, one might be awash in gigs. So, budgeting can be difficult. With that said, the roller coaster ride that is consulting can level out particularly if one is fortunate to find consistent consulting work with one firm and/or client over a multi-year period. Such work may even lead to new full-time opportunities.

The Value Of Your Work Will Vary

Mid-career teachers transitioning out of the classroom and retirees can often find rewarding part-time or full-time roles as training facilitators and marketing or sales representatives with school support/product organizations and textbook publishers. This work will be paid a mid-range salary or day rate that might be equal to or above that of which one might earn as a teacher.

More senior consultants, those who previously served in school and district leadership positions, can earn better money serving as school improvement, policy, advocacy, and strategy consultants either working as independents or as PT/FT advisors with consulting firms. High-profile management consulting firms tend to hire newly minted MBAs, also at high salaries, but with very high expectations in terms of time commitment and deliverables.

Please feel free to reach out to me at John Schembari, Ed.D. | LinkedIn.