Asking Questions :: Getting the right people on the bus
In Katherine Cennamo and Debby Kalk’s book “Real World Instructional Design”, they highlight the importance of asking the right questions. This should be one of the strongest attributes of an instructional designer. I first learned the importance of asking good questions when I was supervising a technical support team for American Power Conversion at their headquarters in Rhode Island. I learned that the ammount of time and frustration that can be saved by asking the right questions can be enourmous (and yes, all of those stories about the questions that tech support people get are true).
From that point on, I made it a goal to become a better “question asker”. When it comes to instructional design, there is a question that, in my opinion, is the most important designer to ask. That question is…
“Do we have the right people on the bus?”
The “bus” is whatever project you are working on at the time. The analogy comes from Jim Collins’ book Good to Great where he says that the most effective executives have said, “…I don’t really know where we should take this bus. But I know this much: If we get the right people on the bus, the right people in the right seats, and the wrong people off the bus, then we’ll figure out how to take it someplace great.”
If an instructional designer is a good ogranizer of who is on the “bus” and where they are sitting, the bus will most likely go someplace great.
November 24th, 2004 at 3:48 pm
I really like the idea behind Collins’ analogy, that if you get the right people on the project, you’ll do well. But I think the analogy itself is kindof silly, sorry! I mean, so if you have some good people on the bus it will automatically take you somewhere good? NO! It very much matters what direction you are going. Good passengers won’t stop a bus from going over a ravine if that’s the direction it’s going — but a good bus driver will. I think that’s crucial. Every good project needs a good “ideas” person guiding the ship who has the right vision to take the right people to the right destination.
November 25th, 2004 at 11:42 am
Good point, Rick. Thanks for bringing the analogy back down to earth. I guess the instructional designer is not only the “recruiter” but also the “bus driver”.
March 22nd, 2005 at 1:29 pm
Hi there,
Just noticed this posting. Please note that Kathy Cennamo and I co-wrote “Real World Instructional Design” — the 900+ pages of the original manuscript were a real collaboration. Thanks,
Debby Kalk
March 28th, 2005 at 2:43 pm
Sorry about that Debby… I’ve made the correction.