by Rich Mesch
Okay, I admit
when I titled this post, I couldn't help but think of the famous "Why a Duck?" scene from the Marx Brothers' 1929 film "The Cocoanuts." If you've never seen it, Groucho attempts to explain how to purchase real estate to the hapless Chico. Things are going well until Groucho points out a viaduct on the blueprints. Mis-hearing "viaduct" as "why a duck?", Chico cannot continue learning until his question is answered. Why a duck, indeed?
The two things we can reasonably conclude from this lead in is:
1. I dig the Marx Brothers
2. Words contain the ability to illuminate and to confuse.
So we know we don't want our words to confuse. We want to make sure all of our efforts lead to improved performance. So why don't they? Well, there are a lot of reasons:
Okay, I admit
when I titled this post, I couldn't help but think of the famous "Why a Duck?" scene from the Marx Brothers' 1929 film "The Cocoanuts." If you've never seen it, Groucho attempts to explain how to purchase real estate to the hapless Chico. Things are going well until Groucho points out a viaduct on the blueprints. Mis-hearing "viaduct" as "why a duck?", Chico cannot continue learning until his question is answered. Why a duck, indeed?The two things we can reasonably conclude from this lead in is:
1. I dig the Marx Brothers
2. Words contain the ability to illuminate and to confuse.
So we know we don't want our words to confuse. We want to make sure all of our efforts lead to improved performance. So why don't they? Well, there are a lot of reasons:
- The problem we think we're solving isn't the real problem
- We've got the right idea, but our audience (or our stakeholders, or our audience's managers) isn't ready for it yet
- We've communicated what, but not how or why
- We're providing help on the wrong thing, or at the wrong time, or to the wrong people
- We're telling instead of showing, supporting, immersing, or involving
This blog has contributors from many walks of life. We have:
Performance Consultants, who will be sharing their experiences and best practices for effective performance improvement
Emerging Technologies Experts, who can tell you about the way technology can support your efforts (including some technologies you thought you already knew about... and some you may not have heard of yet)
User Experience Architects and Visual Designers, who will share what they know about making solutions meaningful, memorable, and immersive
Why a blog? Because we love what we do. We're passionate about it. We want to share it with you, and we want to hear your comments and get some discussion going.
Welcome aboard! Ready to have some fun?
