Many of us know the one. If we had taken the time to read to the end of the page, then we would learn that we only had to write our name in the top right corner of the paper. That's it. Easy peasy. Done. Fini. Thanks for playing.
It quickly becomes apparent, however, who did not stop to read the directions all the way through as 99% of our classmates start waving a hand in a circle over their heads, yelling their names loudly at random intervals, and furiously scribbling the numbers one through one hundred in the center of a piece of paper before writing their full names around it 20 times in their best cursive.
Better hurry, we have only five minutes to take the test! There's no way anyone will be able to finish the whole thing!
I was happy to hear this classic rite of passage is still practiced in today's schools, because the ability to follow directions is incredibly important to our work-life success in addition to taking the SATs.
Besides, I have a vivid memory of patting my head while jumping on one foot as my teacher sat there looking at me with a very curious grin on her face. And why was a nearby classmate just sitting back and doing nothing while stifling a fit of laughter? He was going to get in so much trouble!
I learned a very valuable lesson that day: Always read the directions before starting something to avoid unnecessary, time-consuming work. And mistakes. Did I mention mistakes? One wonders how many IKEA furniture items are ruined annually in a fit of I-can-do-it-myself assembly rage.
What about the workplace, however? How much money do U.S. businesses lose each year simply because employees didn't bother to read the directions before starting? They got the memo, they just didn't read the whole thing.*** As a result, the company lost a good client, threw money down the drain, missed a great business opportunity, or created a big problem that could take weeks, or months, to solve. Oops.
Wait, where did it say to do that? I don't remember reading that part.
It's not too hard to imagine a "Sorry, too long didn't read" problem quietly lurking in today's wireless workplaces, where a one-page memo is taking on Tolstoyan proportions. We don't have time for this, so we skim the first sentence of each paragraph before checking our Twitter feed. Somehow, we entirely missed the part where it said to hold the shipment until the end of the day.
Oops. We'd like to recall that shipment en route, please!
Of course, most employees aren't going to admit that they didn't take the time to read the directions, for obvious reasons. Managers may never be able to directly pinpoint our "directionless" work style as the initial cause of the problem, too. After a few days of research, I still cannot find a concrete statistic that reveals, simply and concisely, how much money companies lose annually because employees didn't bother to read the directions.
Today's distracting LED-ADD open office environments can't be helping matters, either. How can we fully read the memo with a sea of co-workers wandering about our peripheral vision as a loud, adjacent co-worker drums his fingers on the desk again? The sheer level of distraction in today's workplaces can make it almost impossible to concentrate on a one-page memo. I'll wait while everyone checks Twitter again. This blog post is really long.
Perhaps we simply don't like following someone else's directions, we think we're smart enough to wing it without them, or the instructions come off as condescending to our intelligence. So we proceed to ignore them, just because. Wash, rinse, repeat. Repeat? Yeah, riiiight.
Wait, where did the memo say I can't send internal company data to the client?
How should managers manage today's TLDR employee? Well, management can always send out a short, company-wide memo reminding employees to read the directions, but that defeats the purpose rather ironically, doesn't it? Some employees simply won't take the time to read the memo all the way through that tells them to read the memo all the way through.
Keeping company memos short and to a minimum is key, as is breaking the text into very short paragraphs and then bolding the most important take away from the message. Employees might feel like management is shouting at them and assuming they're somewhat incompetent, and in a sense it is -- at least as far as reading comprehension skills go. Please take the time to read the directions. Thanks.
Managers might also broach the topic in a staff meeting by asking: "Um, everyone here always takes the time to read fully the memos the company sends out, right?"
In a pinch, management can go old school on employees by handing out one of those hilarious "read the directions all the way through before taking this test" tests at the annual company retreat. Who says these tricks are for kids? As we watch our work peer waving his arm wildly over his head while jumping on one foot and yell-singing the chorus to a popular One Direction song, we may have a personal epiphany about a very basic, and very costly, mistake of previously unknown origin on last year's project.
Hmm, I knew it!
Of course, a few employees would find this test rather humbling and/or oddly humiliating instead of retroactively elementary, but they may re-learn a critical business lesson along the way. Just remember to keep the exercise as light-hearted, and as fun, as possible.
As we impatiently refuse to read the directions before attempting to assemble a holiday gift from IKEA, let us stop to remember just how important this daily exercise in reading comprehension can be to both our overall time management and personal success. Of course, we'll still tweak grandma's holiday recipe later today by adding or subtracting an ingredient or two,**** just to see what happens. Following the recipe is for wimps, isn't it? Happy holidays!
***TLDR version because this blog post is sooooo long: Employees who don't stop to read the directions could make big mistakes. So always read the directions, m'kay?
**** We didn't read the recipe all the way through before starting to see that it calls for two ingredients we don't have on hand, so we'll wing it with last-minute substitutions and call the end product "artisan." It's all in the marketing, folks.
This is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Accordingly, it is difficult to figure out when to end it. But then, this is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Period.
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