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Hello, howdy, hi, all you cool cats and kittens!
Welcome back from the weekend, how was your Father’s Day? Huge shout out to all the amazing dads out there making a difference. We spent our day wandering around the shops, grilling burgers, and watching some movies. Avery decided we would wrap up the day by watching “The Bad Guys,” and it did not disappoint! Jerel and I are beyond blessed to get to be dads to such an amazing little girl.
In this week’s episode “Works already pretty hard…” we dive into the subject of trying to not complicate things more than they already are. You can check out the podcast here.
Before we jump into the notes for this week’s episode, check out our friends over at SG World. Along with being a great bunch of people, they offer innovative, useful, and cost saving safety products for you organization. Visit them at SG World!
Some Highlights from the Podcast:
“Well intentioned clutter is still clutter…”
“If it does not help, it does not help… no matter how good your intentions are.”
“…we think that if we have to pay for something with pain and suffering, then surely the rewards must be sweeter than the things we do not have to suffer or persevere for....”
“Our systems, especially those around safety, should be accessible and easy to use… they should be built in, as seamless as possible, almost automatic… easy, error tolerant, and happening almost automatically…”
“Our systems, our tools, should not make work harder…”
“If were giving them tools that are not really tools, things that are just more clutter and things that make their lives that much harder, then they’re going to tell us that we’re full of shit… and we kind of are…”
A focus on making it suck less…
We recently wrapped up construction of our home just west of Phoenix in the beautiful city of Litchfield Park, Arizona. The problem with any new (or new to you) home, is the long list of projects that stem from the purchase. Fixtures, fans, furniture, paint, and a little light construction here and there, the list only seems to grow with each completed task.
Here is a “pro tip” for all of you do-it-yourselfers out there like me: when you head to Home Depot, Lowes, Bunnings, or B&Q for tools or supplies, be sure to get supplies that make the job super hard, tools that do not really work and make the task almost impossible to complete, stuff that is useless to the project and leaves you extremely frustrated...
No?
But what if I told you that if you just used those useless and rage inducing tools better or harder, then you just might find the result you seek?
Still a no, huh?
How about this, if they are not working it is probably your fault anyways. You know, good old “user error!” Just use the tools better…
I am still not convincing you, damnit.
Fine, I just wrote a rule that says you must use those tools or else! Why can you not see that I am doing this with your best interest in mind? I only do this to you because I love and care about you. Now do what I say so I don’t have to hurt you.
Sounds a bit familiar, huh?
Akin ecommerce, our systems must be beneficial to the user, useful, easy to use, seamless, intuitive, error tolerant, and near-automatic, otherwise people will not invest their precious time into them. Our systems and tools must aid in accomplishing work, they must help and (hopefully) make the end users task/life suck a little less. If our systems are unhelpful, clunky, hard to use, or require a hefty amount of action and effort of the end-user, they will quickly abandon their use and invest their time elsewhere.
Have you ever bought something online so smoothly, so quickly, and so efficiently that your purchase was complete before you even realized it? Even though we are talking sales tactics designed to extract money from your pockets, we are really talking about understanding and accepting human nature and building systems around it, rather than systems designed to try to change it. In these cases, your time was respected, and your needs were met, things happened intuitively and almost automatically, the whole process was easy, effective, fast.
Now think of a time that you really wanted something, that cool gadget, t-shirt from your favorite band, or gaudy sunglasses you found while shopping online, but were left so frustrated with the process that you walked away or purchased the product elsewhere. No matter how much you wanted the product, no matter how willing you were to part with your hard-earned money, there were just too many clicks, too many boxes, too many pages, too much frustration, and too much effort required.
Let’s get back to the point. Our systems must be beneficial to the user, they must be useful, helpful, easy to use, seamless, intuitive, error tolerant, and near-automatic, otherwise people will not waste their time. Our tools must aid in accomplishing work, in “getting shit done,” not make it harder or impossible. We cannot design systems, tools, or process thinking that we are going to force users to conform their human nature to our systems. Our systems must be built around human nature.
Thank you for your support of the show, along with you support of our amazing sponsors and partners that make it possible. Please take a few moments to subscribe and leave us a review.
As always, I love hearing from you. Send me an email at thehopnerd@gmail.com or reach out on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-goodman-03a95391 or drop me a line at www.thehopnerd.com
My latest book will be coming out in August 2022. “The Care and Feeding of Safety Practitioners.” You can preorder the Kindle edition here https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B3B2LLRL
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