Why aren't they doing what I have been trying to teach?

I have been thinking about instructions and how we pass on knowledge and skills to others lately. It took a blog post from Seth Godin, one of my favorites, to start me down that path. Here are excerpts from his March 12 post:

Two kinds of instructions

The more common, easier to execute sort: Instructions to remind people who already know what to do, what to do.

The more essential and harder to create kind: Instructions for people who don’t know what to do.

It’s a mistake to assume that just because you know all the steps, the person you’re writing for does as well.

[Almost all instructions on car dashboards, and most on the highway, are for people who already know how to drive and where they’re going… instructions that teach are a special category.]

He then lists some steps in thinking through instructions, including this one: Every interaction should have a “what if the person is confused in this moment?” branch (or option).

Many of my college students either don't know what to do or don't realize that they don't know what to do. I know this because no matter how many times I urge them to add support to their claims or arguments, they mostly do not do that.

Many student media advisers and students that I work with, usually indirectly through judging and critiquing their media, don't know what to do. If they did, I could stop repeating the same advice year after year, often to the same publications.

Many of the board members on a nonprofit board I currently chair do not know what to do. The evidence is found in reports that are unclear and unfocused. 

Not all, of course, in any of the above three categories, but many. And that is frustrating. 

It is possible that those who do know what they are doing and who demonstrate it happen to already know what to do. My task with them is to remind them, push them a bit, and maybe challenge them to consider doing even more or just trying some new tactic or strategy. 

Being a consultant who mostly urges students, advisers, and board members to elevate what they already do competently is still challenging but not all that essential. They would all be fine without help from me.

But now I am thinking that I all too often assume that people know what to do but are just too busy, too stubborn, or too distracted to be competent. That thinking needs to change.

Most people I work with need instructions built on the truth that they don't really know what to do. And if you don't know WHAT to do, it's tough to teach HOW to do it. 

I need to start analyzing where my class assignments, my critiques, and my requests for reports need some of those "what if the person is confused at this point?" links or sidebars or focused context. I just need to try to avoid "the curse of knowledge": sometimes I know so much (or think I do) that I lose track of my audience and skip key processes. 

Learning to teach is a long journey.