Business Mentoring Matters

Often when I'm doing a demo presentation of http://www.mentoringcomplete.com or Coaching-Complete.com, I get asked by a prospective client:  "What resources does the system provide for users?"  This is asked with all due importance, as it should be.  However, it is not as important as it may appear.

Having had these online systems for 7 years, I can attest to the fact that most users never bother to look at the resources that are within the system to support their role.  So having resources, in and of themselves, does not guarantee usage.  Certainly we remind users that these resources are there but we are competing against a new phenomenon in our American society which is the short term attention span and multitasking as a result of instant messaging, the shorthand way of communicating on the web (LOL, OMG, 4U, etc.), the need to have everything provided in mini-capsules instead of digesting the entire experience. 

So, whereas in the past, people were expected to read resources, we are now in a situation where we have to shorten our communications and our resources because people don't want to spend the "time" to read through a document.  I'm not sure what the solution is to this if one is not to cave into the demand to shorten and lighten the content but it is an issue that we all are facing.  I wonder if at some point our language or communications will become monosyllabic and we then become a Tower of Babel!