What not How

Can something so simple be career definingly effective?

Summary

This post explores a simple principle that has guided and enhanced my career effectiveness. If you like a tale from the 80’s, that explores the emergence of IT, mixes learnings from University and experience from the real world, read on…

My teenage years saw me grow up in the 80’s*. In that decade computing transitioned from institutional rooms to the home and into the hands of many an enthusiastic prepubescent or teen. If you were lucky you owned a Vic 20, ZX Spectrum or Amstrad CPC 464. If you were really lucky it was the Acorn or BBC Micro. Graduating from newspaper boy to lifeguard saw me stash my earnings away to buy a Commodore 64 and later a BBC Micro B+ (with more than a little help from my parents at Christmas and Birthdays (I even sold all my Star Wars toys to help pay for my Commodore 64 - including that mail-order, collect 6 tokens from Kelloggs cereal boxes + £1.28 for Boba Fett, what was I thinking?)).

These were the glory days of coding; you started with BASIC, toyed with Logo, typed code in from a magazine and learned what it meant to programme a computer. If you were childish you’d walk into Dixons and type “Call 19, Call 20” into the resplendent Amstrad and watch an on-screen collapse, then see helpless staff try to fix it (they soon learned the only fix was off and on). If you were really hard core you graduated to coding in Assembler. The B+ was the most accessible and literal machine for this. It felt glorious, powerful and intimate, like you were at one with the CPU itself, and massaging it at the bit level.

Onwards to University and a Computer Science degree, I mixed with the finest crop of home grown programmers. Full of the exuberance and the ignorance of youth (we thought we were so cool. Honestly, a room of computer scientists being ‘cool’ – never in any world is that going to be true)… we met head on, a slap in the face and dead reckoning with reality from some very educated and intelligent faculty staff.

They purposely stripped us of everything we knew and rebuilt us. First they started with a functional programming language ‘SML - Standard Meta Language’. SML is unlike anything you’ve used before. It’s completely alien to the approach of procedural programming languages. (Essentially you’ve got list building and recursion to solve problems.) Combined with teachings of Formal Methods, lecturers one-by-one ripped out any pre-existing thought of how to programme and taught us a new paradigm of ‘what to think and how to solve a problem’.

The most powerful lesson came from our programming lecturers, who introduced and indoctrinated us with “What not How”.

• What is the problem you are trying to solve?

• What are the inputs?

• What are the outputs?

• What are the expected results?

This was applied at every level; from problem specification, down to the individual programming function or procedure. The programming exercises started simple, aligning with Formal Methods (I struggled, Maths wasn’t my strongest) through to the more complex.

What, What, What — not How, How, How was the mantra. Relentlessly focusing on breaking down the problem; What the problem is? What you are trying to achieve? Define that accurately and expansively and this leads to the How. It was simple, genius and immensely powerful.

We moved back to procedural languages. We learned how to implement data abstraction and encapsulation in C (long before such capability became inherent through C++ and object orientated languages). Black box and white box testing. Many programming methodologies were explored. Many of the time were waterfall based, but even these were questioned and incremental programming (aka Agile) approaches were advocated.

All through this journey; ‘What not How’ was core; define the problem first, really rip it apart until you’ve got the What straight and the How follows. As we became more proficient in multiple languages and technologies it became more natural and our experience led us to How to implement a solution.

I take my hat off to our outstanding lecturers; John Stobo, Val Stringer, Megan Davies, Bob Dickerson, Martin Loomes, Keith Stern and so many more. University of Hertfordshire - you really delivered.

My personal journey took me unexpectedly from programming through to Technical Training. Early in my career (whilst at Apple) the task of writing an onboarding programme really caught my interest and drew out some well-matched skills. I morphed into a trainer and instructional designer, and I haven’t looked back. My technical background has seen me crave out a niche in Enterprise IT Training; being able to converse with the development team, through product and marketing to draw training from the depths of an organisation out to customers and market. My University schooling and technical background feel like a super power.

Taking ‘What not How’ from software engineering to training, the transition is easy;

• What is the training need?

• What are the learning objectives?

• What are learning outcomes?

• What is the skills gaps?

• What does success look like?

  (add in some form of SMART / PACT / Competencies / Bloom's taxonomy / Kirkpatrick etc.)

• What are the barriers to training?

• What development timeline / deadline exists?

• What training modality is appropriate?

These are just a few of the What’s I ask when I approach a training need. Along with this clear specification, my long years of experience leads me to the How… i.e. how to design the training, how to write the training, which software tools to use, which presentation method and technology, which design methodology is best suited. These are all the How’s. Through many failures and successes (you only learn by doing, and you only truly learn when you fail) I’ve come to know the fastest and highest quality routes to training creation. It’s a journey of many tools and approaches. This blend delivers the best and highest quality result. Any business that says “their tool does it all” is playing you for a fool.

And that’s it! It really is that simple, an approach that has served me so very well; start with What, follow with How.

I fully admit this jolly through time is subjective and anecdotal. I’m sure a number of bright people will say “well I can replace that ‘What’ with this ‘How’ in such a such instance.” Or “This isn’t any formal methodology, a load of ol bumpkin!” I don’t mind being wrong. (I got through with brute force and hard work rather than pure brains.) However simply putting the ‘What’ before the ‘How’ has been immensely powerful for me. It’s easy to get wedded to a particular methodology, design approach, engineering language or software tool, just because you know it and it feels comfortable. Of course, I have my favourite video, audio, eLearning tools and LMS’s. But try not to get drawn in just because it might be easy for you. The best approach will be driven by the What and then your experience will lead to you the How.

I do hope you’ve enjoyed this post. Thanks for reading.

All the best in your endeavours.

Simon Street

(* Arguably the best decade: The 80’s - The absolute best for music, for being outdoors and free, for watching TV, films and arcade games. To name but a few; Wham, Depeche Mode, Queen, Dollar, BMX, Chopper, pirate radio, Radio Luxembourg, Kenny Everett, Pac-man, Battle Zone, Missile Command, Daley Thompson's Decathlon, The A-Team, CHiPs, Battlestar Galactica, Wargames, The Empire Strikes Back, Tron, The Karate Kid – Plus the most significant paradigm shifting event; the accessibility of modern day computing.)

About the Author

Simon Street: Training Manager & Senior Instructional Designer - 30 years experience of creating and delivering technical training.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with world class and high performing companies such as Apple and Microsoft. More than that, I’ve worked with exceptionally talented and personable individuals. I’ve worked in some not so great environments and lived to tell the tale. Always learning and open to the next challenge and opportunity. I don’t often post or participate in social media (I honestly don’t know how people have the time). I’m focused on the job in hand and carving out enough time for the important things in life; family, holidays and keeping healthy.

A portfolio of my work can be found here:

https://www.wave-source.co.uk/

Always;

#OpenToWork

#Training

#InstructionalDesign