No Peripherals

A long, long time ago…

I stopped to ask for directions at a Rite Aid parking lot. Yes, this is before GPS. I just lost most of you.

It wasn’t hard to find someone there. In this strange time, people talked to each other, in public! And this guy was good. He shared the directions to a “T”, and I was off. I got lost immediately. And had to do it all over again.

What went wrong?

Peripherals. I didn’t have them. Peripherals are the sidelines. We don’t see the sidelines because we haven’t been there.

The first guy had them and I didn’t. Think about a time you gave someone instructions to do something. Probably today.

Peripherals are the things you see in your mind based on previous experience. When giving instruction, you see the sidelines because you’ve been there. The other guy doesn’t. He sees only what you say. No peripherals.

He “sees” the barn by the left turn and the farmland on the right. He sees the gas station and CVS after the 3rd turn. He sees the destination, with all its surroundings. And even if he adds some of those, all it does is complicate things!

We don’t have the benefit of Google Directions when learning a new task or being instructed to organize an event or complete a complicated project. We might have written instructions, but still no peripherals.

Communication will be a lot easier this way.

So, the next time you delegate, equip, train, coach, advise, or simply communicate, know they might not have your peripherals. That will create more empathy, understanding, and education so you can communicate clearly, concisely, and effectively.

It’ll also inspire the most important communication tool: Patience.