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Re. Startiegies for Improving the Place of Tech Comm
Subject:Re. Startiegies for Improving the Place of Tech Comm From:"M. Dannenberg" <midannen -at- SI -dot- BOSCH -dot- DE> Date:Fri, 20 Jun 1997 09:46:15 +0200
Jennifer Geaslen wrote:
> I'm relatively new to the field (only three years under this belt). Do I
> need to more patient? Does this process of change take several years? Or do
> I really need to pack up and ship on out because change will never take
> place? I get small victories, but they usually change the department not to
> organization.
Sometimes it's worth hanging on in there, sometimes not. A large
organisation is like a supertanker, it takes forever to change course.
If you win small victories, maybe over time those will accumulate to
something bigger.
I'm in a similar situation, in a company that doesn't really have a clue
about documentation, with loads of enigineers, who think that anything
they don't understand (such as docs) must by definition be easy.
Currently I'm the only techwriter, and for the past year I've been
demonstrating, by flatly refusing to take on new assignments when I was
too busy, that we need more documentation staff.
People seem to have been listening, and they've been making noises about
hiring some more writers next year. Until then I'll stick around and
hope for the best, but if it doesn't happen, it'll be time to think
again. I think the key really is educating people about the value and
importance of technical writing (a little customer feedback can do
wonders here). This takes patience and diplomacy, but sometimes a round
of good old butt-kicking is in order too.
Mike
--
Mike Dannenberg
ETAS GmbH & Co.KG
midannen -at- si -dot- bosch -dot- de
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