I saw an interview in the NY Times today that mentioned the concept of a personal user manual which I traced back to a 2008 Business Week article by Ben Dattner. The idea is to create a description of your style and make-up, to make it easier for people to ‘get’ you. Dattner’s original piece provided this outline, which is suitably me-centric:

A SAMPLE USER’S MANUAL:

MY STYLE:

When I’m under pressure, I get serious. This doesn’t mean I’m angry or dissatisfied. Also, be ready to answer the question “why” five times for any given issue. If I ask a lot of questions, please don’t become worried or defensive

WHEN TO APPROACH ME:

Please don’t bring important issues to my attention if you see me at the break room. Instead, schedule a time and book a conference room so I can give the issue my full attention. Also, I’m a morning person, so if possible, please try to schedule time for critical issues before noon.

VALUES:

I value loyalty to our company’s values above all else. And it is very important to me that everyone in this organization treats everyone—from me to the janitor—with equal respect and dignity.

COMMUNICATING WITH ME:

Have conviction for your point of view. I respect people who have the courage to push back if they think I’m wrong. But don’t present until you are prepared. And make sure you have solutions.

WHAT I WILL NOT TOLERATE:

I am very unforgiving of people who don’t admit or who cover up mistakes. Admitting a mistake will not get you in trouble. Concealing a mistake will cause major problems.

FEEDBACK:

I don’t give much positive feedback. Assume I’m satisfied with your work unless I tell you otherwise.

HOW TO HELP ME:

I have a tendency to do things myself instead of delegating, so please suggest things you can take off of my plate.

I like this idea, and I think it should be built into the tools we use to interact in some productive way.

I use Vizify.com to share information about myself visually, the sort that might be generally found in a bio, or profile. After reading about the personal user manual, I wandered over to see if Vizify has anything that might serve. I discovered that they have added ‘vizcards’ some of which are sort of in line with the user manual.

I guess I would like for Vivify to just add a new kind of information object which would be a personal user manual, and it would have something like Dattner’s outline, although customizable.

But I guess creating one somewhere — anywhere —  and sharing it with people you work with, would be a good start even if it’s just in a Word doc.

If we are going to accept that people are more than the roles on their business card, we have to learn to share this sort of information, so that instead of focusing on the tasks of work, first we can understand who we are working with and what’s the best way to cooperate.