Have you ever bought an item of equipment that you thought could come in really handy only to leave it lying around for months because you could not figure out how to set it up? Or not set all the functions up, because it would have taken hours to read through the manual, which looked as if it had been translated by a machine anyway?
Most people have experienced the situation at some time or another. I had an alarm clock once that had dozens of features like waking me up at diverse times on the weekend to during the week and randomly selecting a radio channel every day to wake me up. It also had a feature with which I could train it to understand some voice commands, but I could not be bothered with all that.
I just wanted it to wake me up whenever I set it. Video recorders are similar devices. How many times do you hear of individuals setting their video recorder to record a movie only to get a documentary on another channel? It used to happen a lot, didn't it?
The point that I am getting at here is that the designers of these instruments have been told to put as many functions as possible into them up to a price in order to be all things to all people. However, in making their machines so convoluted, a great deal of people decide not to bother using them at all and will avoid that make in the future, which is the exact opposite of what the manufacturers wanted.
The next time you go out looking for some electronic gadget, you will say to yourself: "Oh, So-And-So, you need a degree to use one by So-And-So. I'm not getting one of those".
So how can this affect you? Well, if you have to coordinate anything that you expect others to take part in or be animated about, try not to make it overly complicated. I am not saying 'dumb-down', just don't show off by putting all the bells and whistles on it merely to show that you can do that. People will not thank you for it, they will take no notice of your project.
This has a great deal of implications for on line projects where people can be thousands of miles apart but still be collaborating on a joint development from home. Open source programming is a fine example of this type of work. The team leaders should keep everything as simple as possible if they want the maximum co-operation.
One technique that you can use to check to see if your project is being understood is to inquire. It sounds self-evident and it should be, but a lot of team leaders will not ask because they think that it makes them look weak and unknowledgeable. Again, in fact, the opposite is the case. A good team leader is not a despot; a good team leader is a good organizer and is considerate.
Most people have experienced the situation at some time or another. I had an alarm clock once that had dozens of features like waking me up at diverse times on the weekend to during the week and randomly selecting a radio channel every day to wake me up. It also had a feature with which I could train it to understand some voice commands, but I could not be bothered with all that.
I just wanted it to wake me up whenever I set it. Video recorders are similar devices. How many times do you hear of individuals setting their video recorder to record a movie only to get a documentary on another channel? It used to happen a lot, didn't it?
The point that I am getting at here is that the designers of these instruments have been told to put as many functions as possible into them up to a price in order to be all things to all people. However, in making their machines so convoluted, a great deal of people decide not to bother using them at all and will avoid that make in the future, which is the exact opposite of what the manufacturers wanted.
The next time you go out looking for some electronic gadget, you will say to yourself: "Oh, So-And-So, you need a degree to use one by So-And-So. I'm not getting one of those".
So how can this affect you? Well, if you have to coordinate anything that you expect others to take part in or be animated about, try not to make it overly complicated. I am not saying 'dumb-down', just don't show off by putting all the bells and whistles on it merely to show that you can do that. People will not thank you for it, they will take no notice of your project.
This has a great deal of implications for on line projects where people can be thousands of miles apart but still be collaborating on a joint development from home. Open source programming is a fine example of this type of work. The team leaders should keep everything as simple as possible if they want the maximum co-operation.
One technique that you can use to check to see if your project is being understood is to inquire. It sounds self-evident and it should be, but a lot of team leaders will not ask because they think that it makes them look weak and unknowledgeable. Again, in fact, the opposite is the case. A good team leader is not a despot; a good team leader is a good organizer and is considerate.
About the Author:
Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on a range of subjects, but is currently concerned with Bose alarm clocks. If you would like to kcurrently more, please go to our website at Bose Digital Radio.