Putting Resources In The World

There are many ways to put knowledge resources into the environment. It’s beyond the scope of this book to go into huge detail on this, but we’ll just take a look at a few examples (for more on this topic, any of Allison Rossett’s books on job aids are excellent resources).

Job Aids

Job aids are typically prompts, instructions, or memory aids that are readily available to help people accomplish tasks.

Here’s one of my favorite job aids:

This unimportant-looking yellow tag on my jumper cables gives me a quick reminder how not to electrocute myself while jumping a car battery. I’ve probably jumped a few dozen batteries over the years, but it’s typically been several months to years between instances, and I find it very reassuring to be able to consult the little tag right there.