Donald Clark (Big Dog, Little Dog) points to an article on HarvardBusiness.org that talks about the importance of "half design". For the perfectionists among us, this might be a hard concept to grasp, but I feel it has some validity.
When designing systems for elearning (or software in general), designers often strive for as close to perfect as they can get. When Peter Bregman, the author of the article, was in the midst of design cycle, he came to a realization that:
I'm not sure I completely buy point 5... I've used, and even liked, systems that I was unable to change or alter in any way. However, there is no doubt that the feelings of ownership and empowerment that come with making a system your own is an excellent motivator.
- My perfect is not [the user's] perfect.
- They don't have a perfect. In fact, there is no they. There are [...] individuals, each of whom wants something a little different.
- The more perfect I think it is, the less willing I'll be to let anyone change it.
- The only way to make it useful to everyone is to allow each person to change it to suit him or herself.
- The only way people will use it is if they do change it in some way.
- The only way I will encourage them to change it and make it their own is if I make it imperfect.
In his training, Bregman asked his participants the critical question:
Why won't this work for you?And then, regardless of what they said, followed up with:
That's a good point. So how can you change it to make it work?So, how can you leave your training unfinished? Do you dare to ask: "Why won't this work for you"? How can you allow your learners to take ownership and fill in the blanks themselves?
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