October - Center for Information-Development Management

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WHAT IF WRITERS LOVED THEIR WORK?“Establishingan openenvironmentwhere it isokay to expressideas isessential. Thecorrectenvironmenthas a lot to dowith new ideasand how theygrow.”do with new ideas and how they grow. Kelleyalso makes it quite clear that fun has to be akey element. Whatever seemingly silly orabsurd event you use to have fun, it will mostlikely be a success. When we are having fun,we revert back to younger days when discoverywas something that wasn’t work at all. Fun canre-create the intellectual innocence of seekingout new ways of doing things because it isenjoyable to do so.Brainstorming as a method of stimulatinginnovative ideas has been called the “wonderfulinfection.” Once an openforum is established, barriersdrop and the ideas start flowing.A writer here at CadenceDesign Systems noted “…it’slike playtime at work.” Opendiscussions instead of specificagendas are based on the conceptthat no idea is a bad idea.At Cadence, so many ideashave come out of our brainstormingsessions that we havecreated an idea bank of newthings to try after we haveexplored the ones that made itto the top of the list.For example, the Cadencegroup was asked to describe,and then plan for, the directionof information delivery in thenear future. In the process ofidentifying the next generationof technical communicationtrends, the group came to an interesting conclusion.All documentation will evolve intofour categories: check lists, examples, animatedvideos, and links to other source material.Whether you agree with that prediction ornot, it was the first joint statement of wherethis team wanted to go. It also said that theyhad ownership of the future and realized thatadditional training would be required to makeit a reality.Being ValuedAfter the first success, the possible innovationsthat wait in the idea bank create an opportunityfor the group to have a steady stream ofhits. The trouble is that even though our teamhas gained much visibility within the organization,many still have no idea what we do. Theneed to gain notoriety at the upper level ofmanagement is key. To do this, we have tochange the mentality of the group. The “wehave friends in very low places” attitude isunfortunately a common trait of technicalcommunicators. The nature of the job, theintroverted personality stereotype of the trade,and the lack of respect technical communicatorsare often shown all add to this problem.The solution falls on the technical communicationmanager’s shoulders. He or she must bethe advocate and PR representative to all managementlayers. By generating internal pressreleases, strategically sendingemails, and engaging in good oldhallway chats, the technical communicationmanager spreads thenews of innovations being investigatedand carried out in the group.The result is a new, gung-ho attitudein your team, which increasestheir feeling of self worth.Recognition should not beundervalued. The old adage, “… aslong as you spell my name correctly”applies. We need to recognizethat although innovation ispart of our job, the extra efforttaken to lead in a new direction isalways critical to our success. Weemploy the “awards ceremony”technique to recognize not onlyimportant contributions to theteam’s success, but also the moresilly events along the way. Onewriter, who received many awardsand letters of praise from R&D, marketing,customer support, and other writing teams onan almost daily basis, was awarded the“Thanks For Coming To Work Award,” in“appreciation of you coming to work even on aday on which you were not receiving anaward.”As the manager of extremely talentedindividuals, you need to set the group goal.You need to grab their attention and the attentionof supporting functions. The sense ofurgency to share the goal with others in theorganization as often as possible keeps thegroup’s value high within the organization. Ifyou set a direction to follow, such as establishingthe goal of increasing customer satisfaction,you must be sure everyone, not just yourwriters, knows what that means and that your128 BEST PRACTICES • OCTOBER 2003
WHAT IF WRITERS LOVED THEIR WORK?team is actively implementing innovative ideasto reach that goal.Essential WorkTasks we assign to our writers have to alignwith stated corporate goals and visions. Thesense of hitting the keys on unimportant, lowleveldocumentation projects is a guaranteedmorale killer—and possibly career killer.Having writers not only understand butalso experience the impact they have on customersis one way to help them recognize theimportance of their work. Encouraging writersto have direct customer contact,become user simulators, or worktrade shows helps. Finding animportant task and finding theright person to do it also helps.During the Best PracticesConference, Julie Bradbury,former Group Director ofCadence Design Systems’ centralizedKnowledge TransferOrganization shared the followingexample of matching theright person to an importantmission.“As a manager in your organization,special projects comeyour way. In most cases, you willlead these projects and experiencethe learning and growththey provide, and other projectswill follow. I believe that theseunique projects offer an opportunityfor you to develop yourpeople and give them a chanceto be part of a special experience.As these opportunities arise, ask yourselfwho in your group could do the job and growas a result. I’m reminded of an experience Ihad a few years back . . .“The Vice President of Operations toldme he had been talking with the leader of theIndia research and development facility. Theyhad agreed to start a publications group inIndia in addition to the groups in the UnitedStates. I had the responsibility to make thishappen and decided to give the leadership ofthe India project to a publications manager inmy group. I asked her if she was interested,and she jumped at the chance. She worked outa plan and found personnel to go to India toset up the systems and to train new writers.“Havingwriters notonlyunderstandbut alsoexperience theimpact theyhave oncustomers isone way tohelp themrecognize theimportance oftheir work.”Within a six-month period, the India publicationsgroup was functioning. Today, this manageris a director, and she looks back on thatexperience as a highlight in her career.”Being UniqueEgo is often called the great motivator. Havinga group that is known as brilliant and bizarre isa good thing. The team considers itself special;but more important, the team holds the beliefthat they can do anything. In The Art Of Innovation,Kelley notes that you should “Inspirehot teams with crazy deadlines and seeminglyunrealistic goals, and watch theresults.” Your team will look atitself as one of those hot teams. Iwould take unique teams overmany unique individuals any day.Unique teams want specialprojects. They create the mood ofsuccess all by themselves. “We arespecial because what we are workingon is valuable to the company.The results of our work candirectly impact the organizationand how our company is perceivedexternally.”At Cadence, one such teamwas created in collaboration withthe customer support organizationto reduce the number of publication-relatedhotline calls by50 percent. By reviewing call datalogs, the team discovered patterns.Their solution was to create FAQson the support Web page, basedupon the previous three months ofcalls. Implementing the solutionenabled the team to identify errors and omissionsin the documentation as well as reducethe number of repetitive calls to the call center.Based upon cost-per-call data, this group ofthree had a cost-avoidance figure of over $2million the first year. Of course, that result wasnoticed, and the team’s success enabled twomembers to go on a company-paid excursionto Hawaii.Another example includes the creation ofthe video animation team that led the way forthe corporation to move from static onlinepages to documentation that comes alive. Takingleadership of a high-impact project tappedinto everyone’s creativity, while boostingesteem with every success.ReferencesThe Art of InnovationThomas Kelley withJonathan Littman2001, New York, NYDoubleday & CompanyISBN: 0385499841OCTOBER 2003 • BEST PRACTICES 129
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