Can I refer you to the Manual of Me?

Between dredging over work history, talking up achievements and struggling with formatting, updating your CV surely ranks among the most stressful of career chores.

But what if resumes asked different questions? Would it be more appealing — or useful — if we arrived at a new job armed with information about how we worked, our strengths and weaknesses, and perhaps a few hobbies and quirks to boot?

That is the thinking behind “personal user manuals” — accessible documents packed with details about what people are actually like in the workplace, from stress triggers to communication styles. A growing number of companies are adopting them, both as a way to introduce newcomers to teams, and to improve cohesion among existing staff.

A parent might note that they may take longer to respond to emails after school hours. A new joiner could write that they like interim deadlines that allow feedback before a final submission. Others (me) may say they focus better when listening to white noise, so if I’m plugged into my headphones, please just tap me on the shoulder if you need to chat.

We wanted to eliminate as many of the barriers that make it difficult for people to work together effectively

At start-up marketing agency AMA, where freelancers and staff from creative, operations and technology fields are frequently thrown together in new teams, manuals help fresh projects hit the ground running. “We wanted to eliminate as many of the barriers that make it difficult for people to work together effectively,” Kitty Day, global people director, says. “One of the most obvious was how to effectively communicate.”

Freelance strategist Matt Knight also started using the manuals to quickly get to know new teams. The idea caught on, and he created a “Manual of Me” platform with templates and workshops for using personal guides.

“Over the years we’ve seen more businesses inviting staff to fill in documents with information like: these are the hours I work, this is what frustrates me, this is what excites me,” he says. “But I found if you just gave people a blank sheet of paper asking how do you work, you were often met with blank faces . . . We wanted to help people find ways to think about it.”

Knight is the first to admit the idea is not his own: the earliest mention he has found, in the mid 2000s, is by consultant Ben Dattner for a “managerial user’s manual” in which new leaders explain to staff how they work.

The guide, Dattner writes, “greatly diminishes the possibility that misunderstandings will cause your new staff to view you as a ‘toxic’ boss”. If a manager communicates they are not a morning person, for example, employees are less likely to take it personally if their approach before lunchtime is treated with disinterest.

Such preferences reveal one of the obvious problems of personal manuals. If everyone is asked to detail their workplace particularities, does that mean we have to tailor our own behaviour to cater to the various whims of every colleague — or, worse, a mercurial boss? It sounds demanding — and places an emphasis on individual demands over working as a team.

In reality, these user guides are not bloodless instruction manuals. Most advocates see them, first, as the basis of a discussion. Employees often write their manuals in special workshops, where they discuss answers and explore needs and personalities together.

David Burkus, an independent consultant, says he rarely sees them used just for reference. Instead they facilitate conversation, helping teams learn about each other, be vulnerable and create trust. “It helps teams find ‘uncommon commonalities’” he says. That can lead to better work, too.

At Deloitte, which makes regular use of the technique, discussion is also the most important element. “The piece of paper is just a prompt,” says Kate Sweeney, head of human capital consulting. “If you set it up right it gives a space for people to share.”

Knight is fairly prescriptive about this. “A document is almost worse, in a way, because it’s removing the humanity,” he says. “It’s about building stronger relationships.”

This discussion and collaboration, however, does create a file of sorts, which can be sent around, shared with teams, and used for applications. Ultimately, Knight says, it might even replace the CV.

“When you’re hiring, you’re interested in what somebody adds and what they’re like when they work,” he says. “The CV is a list of dates and things that you’ve done. This is about how I do it.”