3 Steps

When you program a computer to perform a task that requires three steps, it will do each step in order and will always follow the same sequence.

Step 1

Step 2 

Step 3

If you ask human beings to do a three-step task, some people will do all of the steps in order.

Some people will skip Step 1 thinking that it’s too simple and therefore a waste of their time.

Some people will skip ahead to Step 3 because they want to go straight to “the good part.”

Some people will work on Step 1 indefinitely, because they want it to be perfect before they move on to Step 2. 

Some people will skip a step because it involves an activity that they don’t like to do. They might substitute another action or get someone else to do that step for them.

Some people will complete Step 1 feeling very confident, because it was easy for them. When they find that Step 2 is more challenging, they’ll decided that doing these steps is “just not for them,” and they will never try the steps again.

Some people, when encountering a challenging step, will set the entire activity aside. If they come back to it at a later date, they might find that the steps were not as difficult as they thought.

Some people will execute all of the steps, but they won’t finish any of them thoroughly. They’ll take credit for completing the job, even though they didn’t really accomplish the goal.

Some people will executed the steps in a different sequence.

Some will invent their own way of getting the job done, either because they envision a better solution, or because they don’t like to follow instructions.

Some will declare that the entire exercise is pointless because some product or service already does this, and they’ll refuse to do any of the steps.

What about you? Do you identify with any of these descriptions? Can you think of a different approach to the problem? If you were hiring someone to do a job, which approach would you look for in your candidates? Or would you program a machine to do it?