{"id":5047,"date":"2021-03-25T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-25T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonusbenefits.com\/make-it-as-simple-as-pbj\/"},"modified":"2021-03-29T21:04:20","modified_gmt":"2021-03-29T21:04:20","slug":"make-it-as-simple-as-pbj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonusbenefits.com\/make-it-as-simple-as-pbj\/","title":{"rendered":"Make It as Simple as PB&amp;J"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A few years ago, a comedian took a video of himself with his two children as he followed their written instructions to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=cDA3_5982h8&amp;t=9s&amp;ab_channel=JoshDarnit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> In the video<\/a>, he follows his kids\u2019 instructions exactly. As you might have guessed, it goes rather poorly.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Exact Instructions Challenge - THIS is why my kids hate me. | Josh Darnit\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cDA3_5982h8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Instruction<\/strong>: Put the peanut butter on the bread.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dad<\/strong>: Puts the jar of peanut butter on the slice of bread.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Instruction<\/strong>: Take one piece of bread, spread it around with the butter knife.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dad<\/strong>: Takes a plain piece of bread and spreads it around on the counter using a butter knife.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Instruction<\/strong>: Get some jelly, rub it on the other half of the bread.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dad<\/strong>: Rubs the jar of jelly on the other slice of bread.<\/p>\n<p>And so it goes. Complete chaos. While this video is hilarious, it speaks to a fairly common issue in the world of business. How often do we give or receive instructions that are lacking? If you\u2019ve ever had to build a complicated piece of furniture from Ikea, you know the utter rage such things can incite. Despite the fact that Ikea does everything it can to make its instructions perfect\u2014pictures and all.<\/p>\n<h3>It\u2019s not that simple<\/h3>\n<p>How often do we leave gaps in our explanations, and send someone off with instructions made up of 50% assumptions that they think the same way we do or know the same things we do? It\u2019s not surprising, really. Writing instructions\u2014good instructions\u2014is tedious. It\u2019s boring. We already know what we\u2019re asking for, leaving us inclined to leave out the obvious.<\/p>\n<p>But not everyone has the same brain, the same frame of mind, or the same references. This means leaving out what\u2019s obvious for you could be leaving out a key ingredient for the reader.<\/p>\n<h3>It\u2019s all in the details<\/h3>\n<p>When you hire a new employee, change leadership, or implement a new piece of technology, how common is it for things to go awry? Think about how easy it is for roles to get mixed up or tasks to be incorrectly completed. This type of thing doesn\u2019t just frustrate everyone\u2014it wastes time and money. And the worst part is, it\u2019s avoidable. If only you had prepared thorough instructions.<\/p>\n<p>So next time you\u2019re writing out instructions, follow these steps:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Write down everything.<\/li>\n<li>Don\u2019t skip <i>anything<\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>Walk yourself through the instructions after you\u2019ve written them. Take them literally.<\/li>\n<li>Ask someone else to read through them and look for gaps.<\/li>\n<li>Treat it like you\u2019re talking to an alien. Don\u2019t assume they know what anything means.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>This isn\u2019t a flashy topic, but it\u2019s an essential one. While you\u2019ve been trained to do many things, you\u2019ve probably never been trained to write instructions. We all just assume everyone knows how\u2014but they don\u2019t really. Because \u201ccommon sense\u201d is dependent on common experience\u2014and those aren\u2019t the same for everyone.<\/p>\n<p>Next time you\u2019re writing instructions, ask yourself: is it worth a short amount of tedium now to be as detailed as possible, or a more frustrated, repeated tedium later when you have to start over? The answer is obvious.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Content provided by\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.q4intel.com\/employers\/\"><em>Q4iNetwork<\/em><\/a><em>\u00a0and partners<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Photo by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.123rf.com\/profile_yuragolub\">Iurii Golub<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/track.hubspot.com\/__ptq.gif?a=1652561&amp;k=14&amp;r=https%3A%2F%2Finsights.q4intel.com%2Femployers%2Fmake-it-as-simple-as-pbj&amp;bu=https%253A%252F%252Finsights.q4intel.com%252Femployers&amp;bvt=rss\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few years ago, a comedian took a video of himself with his two children as he followed their written instructions to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. In the video, he follows his kids\u2019 instructions exactly. As you might have guessed, it goes rather poorly. Instruction: Put the peanut butter on the bread&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":5050,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[30,43],"tags":[32,44],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.12 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Make It as Simple as PB&amp;J - Sonus Benefits<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/insights.q4intel.com\/employers\/make-it-as-simple-as-pbj\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Make It as Simple as PB&amp;J - Sonus Benefits\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A few years ago, a comedian took a video of himself with his two children as he followed their written instructions to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. 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