Adam Grant (@AdamMGrant), author of Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World, tweeted a link this LinkedIn article by Abby Falik today, “Leaders Need User Manuals – and What I Learned By Writing Mine.”

In the article, Falik includes her own User Manual, which includes these headings:

• My Style
• What I Value
• What I Don’t Have Patience For
• How Best to Communicate with Me
• How to Help Me
• What People Misunderstand About Me

As soon as I read the article, I immediately saw applications for education.  Not only would it be valuable to have this information about the administrators we work with, but also our colleagues and students.  Because many of us are about to begin a new school year, I challenge you to create your own User Manual to share with your students and/or colleagues.  Even better, consider this as an alternative to the usual ice-breakers we assign students to give them the opportunity to make their own user manuals after you share yours.  This could really work for any grade level with adaptations.  Kinder students could do a few of the sections with some rephrasing, (What is important to you?) and by answering with pictures.  Older students could use a program like Canva.com to create a User Manual/Infographic (see my example below).  Could your students who love programming write one in code?  As you can see, there are many ways this could be adapted for different uses.  The most important thing to keep in mind is how it can help us to learn more about ourselves and the people we interact with on a regular basis.