A customer pushed back when I mentioned our delivery charges for his order. This was in late 1976 or in early 1977. I had been on the job as an Inside Sales Person for just a few months.

Seems he’d had “a different experience” recently when someone gave him free delivery for a purchase dollar amount under what I understood our “policy” to be.

I dislike when things like that happen.

So I went to the manager, told him what I wanted to do. He said go for it.

So I copied a map of Lawrence KS on our xerox copy machine from the front of the phone book and then got a protractor and drew a few circles on it and then wrote our delivery charges, reflecting the policy.

And then I posted the delivery charge policy and costs on a 6″x6″ post on the corner of the sales counter “pit” where we salespeople stood with our sales forms and price books in the center of the store.

I had done something similar – created a job aid – before I’d ever heard the term – back in the US Navy – for me and a few of my shipmates in how we ran the CCTV – Closed Circuit TV System that I ran whenever we were out to sea. It was for tasks and outputs that were not part of the daily routine.

Job Aids, a.k.a.: Guidance, EPSS, Quick-Reference-Guides, Non-Regulated SOPs, Performance Support, WorkFlow Learning, has had many names over my 4 decades in the business.

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