172 Understanding Rational Decision Making
decisions when the layout of a text makes the more important pieces of information in it more
attention getting.^288
The think-aloud remarks in Table 4.3, made by three experts whose comments we saw inChapters 1 and 2 , reveal the importance of task-based organization. All three experts express their
frustration with the organization of the documents they are reading. Notice that the investor and
the partner in the private equity fi rm do not wait until they run across the information they expect
to be delivered, but immediately start thumbing through the long documents they have been given
until they discover it.
Many documents and presentations are topic based as opposed to task based. Topic-based docu-ments and presentations are organized around the concepts the communicator thinks are important
instead of the sequence in which the audience needs information to be presented. Topic-based
documents and presentations create problems for audiences who try to use them to perform spe-
cifi c tasks such as make a decision or follow a set of instructions. In a study of readers’ diffi culties
with topic-based organization, three experts read a topic-based federal regulation about eligibility
for Small Business Association grants and thought aloud as they read. It so happened that one of the
experts tried to use the information in the regulation to determine her own business’s eligibility for
a grant. During the experiment she actively searched for the information she needed. The other
two experts simply followed the organization of the regulation as they read and interpreted it. The
expert who actively searched for information that would help her decide if she were eligible for a
grant made many more negative comments about the organization of the regulation and about the
diffi culty of her search process than the other two experts. In fact, 50 of her 200 comments were
complaints about the organization of the regulation.^289
The two versions of the instructions on the following pages illustrate the difference betweentopic-based and task-based organization. Both versions describe the fi ve steps soldiers must take if
they are to respond quickly and effectively to chemical, biological, or radioactive attacks. However,
one would expect the effectiveness of the two versions to vary considerably if soldiers were to use
them to respond to an actual attack.
A careful reading of the original, topic-based instructions on p. 173 reveals that the fi rst step isnot mentioned until Sentence 10, toward the end of the long, 14-sentence paragraph. The fi nal step
TABLE 4.3 Expert Audiences Expect Information to Be Presented in a Specifi c Order
Expert investor reading the original Smartphone MBA business plan
- When I read these things I like to start off with the people involved. Is there anything in here about
the background of the guy who is going to be the General Partner? <The investor then fi nds the General
Partner’s résumé in an appendix.> Oh, here he is.
Partner in a private equity fi rm reading the acquisition plan for a textile manufacturer
- What I usually like to see is a snapshot of the company, which it doesn’t appear that they have. Just the company’s
fi nancials, their sales, operating income at least, those two things, at least for the last three years. Depreciation
and capital expenditures... some things to give an idea of cash fl ows. They make you fl ip to the back to look
through the numbers, which I will do now.
Experienced board member reading the strategic plan from General Motors
- Under “Most Relevant Competitors,” they’ve listed their own and the three major competitors’ vehicle
sales growth, three-year average, the three-year profi tability, and market share. Again it’s just a listing of data
with no insights. My sense of a good strategic plan is that what one begins with is this data. One does not
present data like this as a summary.