#31: Direct Responses

Introduction to Concept:

Following directions is easy if the person giving the directions has engaged in task-analysis first. Far too often, however, those who give instructions have not given thought to the best way of sharing knowledge. They have not planned in advance the most logical way to present important information.

Part of the “logic” associated with giving directions is the realization that there are numerous kinds of intelligence and numerous ways of absorbing information. Howard Gardner lists eight kinds—linguistic, logical, musical, spatial, kinesthetic, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and natural. J. P. Guilford has actually identified 124 separate and distinct kinds of intelligence; he regards them as a divisible cube of intellect.

The most efficient directions-giver appeals to the appropriate intelligence. If the intelligence is not known or if the audience has a combination of intelligences, the direction-giver appeals to more than one kind.

Procedure:

1. Physically arrange the room so that participants are sitting in one half of the room or the other. (If you do not have an even number of participants, the one “odd person out” will serve as the observer and will “float” around the room to make note of how this organization exercise was executed. The observer will make a report after the partners have conferred.)

2. Emphasize again the need to appeal to various modalities. Stress the fact that our backgrounds and experiences are different and while one person may recall geometric terms, for example, another may be thinking in terms of pies and pound cakes. And so, as good communicators, we need to express a given concept in more than one way.

3. Explain the task in the following manner: “Soon, I am going to give each of you a diagram. It is important not to let someone on the other side of the room see what you have. You are going to follow the instruction on the diagram, which essentially asks you to describe it in writing. There are certain words you cannot use.”

4. Distribute Handout #31-1A to the left-hand side of the room and Handout #31-1B to the right-hand side of the room and give participants about 20 minutes to complete their written directions. They will use another sheet of paper, at the top of which they will have written their names.

5. Once they are finished, collect all the handouts, keeping the two piles separate.

6. Every person on the left-hand side will give his or her paper to a partner seated on the right-hand side and will receive a paper in return.

7. Class members will now draw a diagram based on the written instructions they were given.

8. When they are ready, you will ask the partners to sit together and to show each other their diagrams. As they do this, you will quickly give both handouts to each set of partners.

9. Give them an opportunity to compare their products to the original diagrams, stressing that the drawings should match the original exactly, including the thickness of lines and the size of the objects. Then ask each pair to decide what one thing in the directions would have improved the quality of the final product.

10. Call on each pair to share their improvement ideas as you compile a master list on chart paper.

Extending the Activity:

1. Have participants identify the criteria that constitute excellence in the giving of directions.

2. Work with them to prepare an assessment form incorporating those criteria, to be used to critique those who give instructions inside and outside the classroom.

Workplace Connections:

1. Encourage participants to “check for understanding” whenever they are given directions for completing a task that is new, difficult, or unclear to them. One of the simplest techniques they can employ is simply to paraphrase to the direction-giver their understanding of what they are to do.

2. The steps involved in the most important workplace processes should be made uniform and put into a procedural manual so that new hires or temporary replacements can work with little variation in the established processes.

Questions for Further Consideration:

1. What are some of the barriers to the effective exchange of instructions?

2. What do you think General George S. Patton meant when he said leaders should “give direction, not directions”?

3. What is the worst mistake you ever made as a result of unclear directions?

4. What would have prevented the mistake from occurring at all?

5. From whom in your lifetime have you learned the most? What made that person such an extraordinary teacher?

A. Study the following diagram carefully, because your goal is to have another person reproduce it exactly. You cannot show it to that person. Nor can you use your hands—use only your words to describe it. (You will describe it in writing and your paper will then be turned over to your partner, who will try to reproduce what you were looking at, using only the directions you gave on paper.) One more rule: As you tell your partner how to draw this illustration, you CANNOT USE the words “circle” or “round” or “triangle.” Good luck!

B. Study the following diagram carefully, because your goal is to have another person reproduce it exactly. You cannot show it to that person. Nor can you use your hands—use only your words to describe it. (You will describe it in writing and your paper will then be turned over to your partner, who will try to reproduce what you were looking at, using only the directions you gave on paper.) One more rule: As you tell your partner how to draw this illustration, you CANNOT USE the words “circle” or “round” or “triangle.” Good luck!