dealing with instructionally-disabled people 2

[langleymass]

An "instructionally-disabled" person is simply a person who has little or no ability to follow simple instructions. How do you deal with instructionally-disabled people?

Last year, I moved my business address to a mailbox. About a month before the move, I notified many associates of this change via postcard. I taped my new business cards to the postcard, simply saying: "Please direct all future correspondence to:"

I would say that about half the people messed it up in one way or another. In some cases, I still got the mail. In some cases, I did not. In some cases, it took multiple phone calls to resolve the problem.

How do you deal with instructionally-disabled people?

 

[SF0751]

I don't think you are dealing with "instructionally-disabled" individuals. I think that you are dealing with individuals who don't WANT to (or don't CARE to) follow instructions.

Susan
"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort."
- Herm Albright (1876 - 1944)

 

[CajunCenturion]

Do you want to continue to deal with these people?
If Yes -
How do you deal with instructionally-disabled people? Patiently.

--------------
Good Luck
To get the most from your Tek-Tips experience, please read FAQ181-2886
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[sleipnir214]

You should, I think, also adopt the instructional methodology of the U.S. military. It's a three-step process:[ol][li]First, you tell them what you are going to tell them.[/li][li]Then you tell them.[/li][li]Then you finish by telling them what you told them[/li]



How many times did you warn them of the change? If more than once, did you use a method other than the unreliable postcard?

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TANSTAAFL!!

 

[Toshilap]

sleipnir,
I am going to use it as a chain mail...you know sending to everyone for uncontrolable laughs

I finally got it all together and forgot where I put it.

 

[sleipnir214]

Hey, it may sound funny, but it's true and it works. And more people use it than you think.

I can remember more than one highschool teacher:[ol][li]beginning the class with "Class, today we are going to talk about <such and such>. We're going to look at how <fnords> can be related to <bugaboos> and what the <some country> government does to alleviate the problem."[/li][li]Teaching the subject matter that he/she stated we were going to discuss[/li][li]Then saying at the end of class, "Class, remember that today we talked about <such and such>. We related <fnords> to <bugaboos> and showed how the steps <some government> has taken have only partially relieved the problem."[/li][/ol]

The teacher told me what he was going to tell me, he told me, then he told me what he told me.

Want the best answers? Ask the best questions!

TANSTAAFL!!

 

[Toshilap]

I remember, exactly! But I never thought of it like that, in funny way. All I though of is to get out of the class I guess. LOL

I finally got it all together and forgot where I put it.

 

[langleymass]

Yes, the three-step method is good. But what do you do with people who do not READ instructions?

 

[svanels]

Then they are not interested, don't waste time on them.

Steven

 

[grande]

langleymass,

Is it possible that YOU messed up on the postcards (sent them to the wrong address?) I'd be surprised if 50% of people didn't update the records. I could see 25%, but 50 is a little high...

-------------------------
Just call me Captain Awesome.

 

[chiph]

The military approach is very effective, and I try and use it myself.

But in the corporate world, you can't make them do 25 pushups when they aren't paying attention.


Chip H.


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[sleipnir214]

chiph:
Actually, the consequences of not listening to military blocks of instruction are a little more Darwinian than that. The ones not paying attention are generally the first ones to get themselves killed. And it doesn't even have to be in combat -- a lot of U.S. service people are killed in accidents every year. The only real problem is that those to don't pay attention tend to take others with them.


langleymass:
When I took Communications 200 in college, I was taught that the transmitter of a message has the responsibility for seeing that the message is successfully received.

I once owned my own business (hell, I WAS the business) and had to change my address. At 3, 2, and 1 months out, I added zero-cost line-items to the bills of all clients. Those lines items were for "telling customers about change of address", so that even my inactive clients would get a bill and get the messages. On the first and second billing cycle after the move, I included a flyer with the bills to all active clients. I also sent letters and postcards to all contacts at all clients, active or not.

100% of my active clients got the message. Of the inactives, probably 50%.

Want the best answers? Ask the best questions!

TANSTAAFL!!

 

[chiph]

The ones not paying attention are generally the first ones to get themselves killed. And it doesn't even have to be in combat -- a lot of U.S. service people are killed in accidents every year. The only real problem is that those to don't pay attention tend to take others with them.

Oh I know - I used to see it on AFN every year during the REFORGER exercises. There were always a couple of guys who would be sleeping under their deuce & a halfs when they would start up and drive away in the middle of the night. It didn't matter that their training & the sergeant told them not to.

The USAF wasn't immune, either. We had a guy killed in tech school when his field jacket snagged the ejection loop on the F-15 he was working on, and the system ejected him into the roof of the hangar. The tech order tells you to take loose-fitting clothing off before leaning in, but he either forgot or didn't want to. There were a few more airmen killed at the base in Germany for other reasons, the cause of which was always traced back to "didn't follow orders".

So you can tell people over and over, but there's always a certain percentage that just doesn't get the message, even if the consequences are dire.

Chip H.


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[sleipnir214]

Ah, REFORGER -- that's an acrynym I haven't heard in a long time. I saw an incredible number of darwinian or potentiallly-darwinian events during my last REFORGER, with the Army in either '88 or '89.

Want the best answers? Ask the best questions!

TANSTAAFL!!

 

[benlinkknilneb]

I deal with a couple of these "instructionally-disabled" people myself... I think the problem is that very few people get killed when they forget (for the 3rd time this week, after I hand-wrote instructions) how to use the character map to see what different Wingding characters are. They think, "Oh, Ben knows how, I'll just ask him if I forget", so it's not important enough for them to use one of their 3 brain cells to remember it.

Ben
The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't. - Douglas Adams

 

[grande]

Why... Why do you have things in Wingdings?

-------------------------
Just call me Captain Awesome.

 

[Toshilap]

I think if you asked someone if they wanted to be "instructionally-disabled" very few will answer "yes, it is actually what I wanted to be since I was born".

It is just hit me that being "instructionally-disabled" is as legitiment disability as any other like ADD. Why don't we make fun of those? Just because "instructional disability" is not on the list?

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I finally got it all together and forgot where I put it.

 

[CajunCenturion]

It is on the list.

It's better known as the Instructionally-Disabled Ten T Syndrome.

--------------
Good Luck
To get the most from your Tek-Tips experience, please read FAQ181-2886
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[SF0751]

Susan
"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort."
- Herm Albright (1876 - 1944)

 

[langleymass]

Well, I probably could have called all these people to confirm the address change. The problem is that sometimes I just have too much confidence in people.

I know that many people did screw up this address change because I did get mail from many of them, but the address was only partially correct.

Sometimes when I mail order stuff. I will write in the "instructions" field: "Write out address exactly as you see it."

I guess I should have done that with the postcards.

Then again, I could also talk about how much difficulty when I try to get a plain hamburger at Wendy's or McDonald's.

My theory on these people is that they have gotten yelled at so much that they have gotten used to it. They really don't know what it would be like to live a life actually being fully aware and present. These people really do just sleepwalk through their existence.