Re: Can someone learn to be detail-oriented?

["Mason, Catheryn" <CMason -at- INFINITEC-COM -dot- COM>]

Jill asked for our guidance and feedback on the following issue: taking
someone who is new to technical writing and is known to *not* excel at being
detail-oriented and turning that person into a successful member of a very
detail-oriented tech writing team. (An aside, here: this is a simple
question that should not provoke flaming over Jill's work style, management
style, work environment, or detail-oriented versus big-picture people. This
has only to do with what Jill's team needs at the moment -- nothing else.)

In following this thread, one thing that has not been addressed so far is
the *willingness* of this new person to change her habits, to become a more
detail-oriented person in her work. I think that this element is key -- she
must be willing to take direction and, as a result, to adjust her work
habits to contribute to the success of the team.

Here's my own story with this sort of scenario:  In a previous job, I worked
closely with a person who needed to be very detail-oriented and careful in
her work. We received documents (training manuals and such) from corporate
headquarters, she cleaned up their formatting, I edited them, and she was
responsible for executing my edits and putting the document on a zip disk to
transfer to our (internal) print and distribution shop. Sounds easy ... but
it was very important that she catch all of my edits, all of which were
clearly marked. I would perform a final, high-level proof of the document
before it was transferred to print production, and I would routinely find
errors in her work. Her common response was, "oh, I missed that one" or "I
wasn't sure what you meant there, so I didn't change anything." This is
somewhat reasonable when two people are beginning to work together; however,
we went over the same things again, and again, and again. She prided herself
on being a fast worker, but she was not a careful worker (don't ask why I
hired her ... I didn't). I made my expectations known ... to ask me about an
edit if she had questions, and to double-check her own work before passing
it off to me for final proof. I even made small tactical suggestions ... use
a colored marker to mark through changes made, etc.  And I made it clear
that everyone makes mistakes sometimes, that I did not expect 100%
perfection 100% of the time. In spite of all of our discussions (and they
were discussions, not one-sided rants), she simply could not perform the
sort of work that she needed to in that job, and we placed her elsewhere in
the company. The silver lining here is that the next person to fill that job
was very good at handling details and asking questions ... I grew to have
such confidence in her work that I abandoned the final, high-level proof
process as a matter of course, and left it to her to alert me if she noticed
problems and felt that such a step was necessary on a particular document.
I've mentioned only one scenario ... in that job we dealt with many
documents of many different types and we had a very heavy workload; having
someone who was *willing* to be a detail-oriented person for 8 hours a day
was essential for our success.

This entire issue is not about asking people to do unreasonable things or to
contort themselves to accommodate the anal-retentive demands of a lead
writer or boss. It is about what you need to get the job done. Jill needs
someone who will be very attentive to detail ... have a frank discussion
with this new person, make your requirements clear, create checklists, take
the extra time to check her work (in the beginning), address this issue of
her "willingness" to adopt some new work habits, and address any problems
quickly and clearly. After that, I would just cross my fingers.  Hope you've
gotten some helpful responses, and that all of this works out smoothly and
well for both you and your new team member.

Catheryn Mason, Technical Writer
Infinitec Communications
cmason -at- infinitec-com -dot- com
Winner, 1999 IABC Bronze Quill Award of Excellence for Technical Writing

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