When you are initiating team or workgroup projects with written products (for example, reports and proposals), it is important to start by implementing a writing and editing process parallel to the process described in Chapter 3. You need to focus on establishing a team process, evaluating team members' skills, and evaluating your written product.
Step 1—
Evaluate the Team Process
Plan ahead. Planning ahead, anticipating barriers, and analyzing strengths will help teams avoid wasted, redundant effort, which is a major reason that team projects exceed timelines and budgets. Does planning ahead sound simple? It is not. In fact, one of the first barriers that a team faces is the need to rein in compulsive team members who are driven to get their "real" work started, immediately!
For various team members, that "real work" might be writing down basic goals, developing a budget, designing research, allocating space for designing a prototype, or some other individual hot button.
Our hot button is saving time and eliminating redundant efforts, especially those related to writing up materials and developing databases. The quickest way to create work that will need to be redone is by having to rewrite. For a team project, these tasks range from the simple (deciding which word processing software to use) to the complex (establishing responsibilities, processes, and procedures for the complete project).
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For writing projects, use these steps to improve the success of your team:
• Clarify the following:
What needs to be done Who is doing it When they are doing it How they are doing it How long it will take What it will cost
• Use computers and software tools, such as:
Word processing software Grammar and spell checkers Project management software E-mail
Presentation software
• Edit drafts sequentially (see Chapter 3).
• Create a final document.
• Proof that final.
• Obtain appropriate releases (from content experts and managers).
• Plan how to reproduce and distribute the material.
• Distribute and reproduce the material.
• Follow up.
Begin by selecting a word processing package and a document template. Why? The minute that two or more people start to independently write up ideas, establish independent guidelines for project management, or choose different ways to handle data, the team will develop inconsistent products that will require revision after revision. Believe us! We have been there many times, and it is a monstrous headache and one common reason that team members end up working nights and weekends, editing and reediting, trying to get projects completed.
Prewriting steps will help you determine what you need to accomplish. We developed information on prewriting steps in Chapter 3, and we shared related information on defining your purpose in Chapter 11 and analyzing your audience in Chapter 12. Audience analysis is one of several prewriting steps, which include identifying your:
• Objectives or goals
• Users or readers (audience analysis)
• Users' objectives or goals
• Users' existing knowledge
Page 191 Prewriting steps help you determine if writing is the appropriate or best technique to use in your situation, as well as what to include or exclude. To the extent you know what to include, who your audience is, and your goals, you will be able to avoid common initial writing errors and writer's block.
Step 2—
Evaluate Your Team
Evaluate and use team members' skills. We are assuming that the composition of a team has been determined and that you know what needs to be done. The next major step is evaluating who does what. A common problem that teams face is that people try to do tasks they are afraid to admit they cannot do. Not only is time wasted, redundant effort is needed to fix new problems that arise. Part 2 of this book addressed writing problems, and elsewhere (see ron-hein.com Grammar Workshops) we have developed materials that help managers and executives quickly identify and eliminate key writing problems. Keep in mind that people are often embarrassed to admit that they have weak writing skills, and sometimes they aren't even aware that there may be room for improvement.
To expedite projects, have the skilled team writers ''write" and the skilled team editors "edit." Have team members complete tasks that best utilize their skills.
For projects with a major writing (and/or related presentation) component, we recommend that you follow these guidelines:
• Use a project leader and/or a study group leader.
• Know and share your own individual strengths and weaknesses.
• Anticipate personal and work-related problems and commitments (family, sanity, etc.) that may interfere.
• Summarize actions to be taken; assign responsibilities.
• Arrange useful, focused working sessions and times.
• Come prepared for work sessions.
• Follow through on assignments.
• Monitor and facilitate individual participation.
• Establish specific goals and timelines.
• Determine the format, layout, and templates for your written products first!
These simple yet often overlooked steps will greatly enhance your team productivity.
Use project managers. It is important to use project (or group) leaders to do the following tasks:
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• Identify goals, products, and outcomes.
• Establish and coordinate timelines.
• Identify skill sets and other resources needed, such as content experts.
• Identify strengths and weakness of participants.
• Schedule and track the components of a project.
• Monitor progress and process concerns.
• Negotiate changes.
• Facilitate delivery of the project requirements and products.
Gantt and PERT charts are excellent tools for project management. We strongly urge you to use Gantt and PERT charts (even fairly simple ones) to identify and avoid conflicts related to allocation of resources (people, money, facilities, etc.) for specific projects and among multiple projects.
Resolving conflicts among projects (and deciding which manager or senior vice president to please or put off) is a major headache.
Gantt and PERT charts are extremely useful for tracking related costs and testing what-if scenarios related to resource allocation. Problems often result from inadequate allocation of time and resources for completing research; writing and editing; printing and distributing materials; and preparing and practicing presentations.
In addition to Gantt or PERT charts, you may choose from a number of computerized project management software products (e.g., Microsoft Project). One problem, however, with project management software is that learning to use it is often a time-consuming task, and when a team is trying to ramp up a new project, that time is often not available.
Managing team projects is becoming more sophisticated due to the number of new options in word processing and project management software packages. It's useful for all managers to look at groupware packages (for example, Lotus Notes, Microsoft Project, Timeline) to determine how to share schedules and documents. It is seldom cost-effective to have your technical staff format documents and presentations. Avoid having highly paid executives or managers doing these tasks. In fact, after your content experts complete their initial drafts, hire a consultant or assign a highly skilled staff member to edit and format the materials.
Step 3—
Evaluate Written Materials
In addition to evaluating your process and team members' skills, you will be more successful in developing useful written materials if you have the following:
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• An executive summary that can be used to make a decision
• A clear, logical organizational structure
• Visually emphasized key points
• Graphics, tables, and figures that advance your arguments and decrease text
• The substance of your report in body of the report, not in the appendixes
• A good conclusion
• Report(s), handouts, and visuals that are coordinated for your presentation
End Point
If you follow the straightforward steps in this chapter, your written materials will be improved. To save time, develop any presentations based on your materials after you finish your written project. Having a finished document before you start to develop a presentation will lead to coordinated materials and fewer revisions of your presentation.
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