Second World War - Job Instructions

 

Take a look at this PDF

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14mj2mj4PXvq0cS5IMoHxwrAlUMoofJy2/view?usp=sharing

It may seem strange but an important part of the mission statement for DMB Publishing is to direct readers to lots of free resources. In fact you cannot survive in this internet world unless you do the wonderful free of charge. So how can this be achieved. Well there is alot free these days if you know where to look. Consider that normal copyright ends 70 years after the author’s death so any author dying before 1950 can now have their work distributed by others royalty free. Many publishing houses have locked onto this fact and are busily locating these works and republishing them for resale. In fact they are constantly trawling for these authors and their works. Whilst families of the original authors manoeuvre to re-establish some form of re-ownership of authorship. Fortunately much of the Government’s old published resources are freely made available in the Public Domain. This blog is not about looking at this in any detail (not yet anyway) but to offer you access to a digital resource that I have treasured on my PC’s hard drive for many years. In fact I have just struggled to find it. So what is it and why would it be of interest to you. Fortunately it is in the Public Domain and free to use.

It was created by the US War Manpower Commission in 1944 as a “Job Instructions Sessions Outline and Reference Material” and it is now out in the Public Domain. It has always interested me because it is now 76 years old (2020) but it not only identifies the importance of Job Workflows and Job Instructions but it focusses on the people aspects of training people in the use of these Job Workflows and Job Instructions. So much common sense in one document. It is written in a very no-nonsense style focussing upon how the trainer should deliver the material. But being a process enthusiast myself it also shows both the importance of Job Instruction sequencing (the workflow) and Job Instruction textual detail.

In many current digitally driven workplaces the need for using Job Instructions has all but disappeared. But without them the “system driven” user is left to blindly obey the computer without appreciating the logic and the reason why they are doing something. Ring any call centre with a more difficult question and you will likely get the response that “I need to speak to my manager.” Job Workflows and Job Instructions still have an important role to play as any organisation under “computer control” gets more complicated. Ask Boeing about there737 Max computer problems. This is likely to get even more complex using Artificial Intelligence (AI) processing techniques. The call centre operator in the future will increasingly be asking you to Google it since they don’t know the answer and you will have as much likelihood of finding the answer as them.

Anyway take the time to read this document through and at the end I am sure it will have some impact on your thinking in respect of Training and Processes. Hopefully this will be converted into changes to your Training Process and hopefully the introduction of  Digital Workflows and the use of Job Instructions.