Some Questions and Answers About the Leonard Domino “Putting It In Writing” Seminar
Who should attend the “Putting It In Writing” Seminar? Is it a workshop for writers or is it aimed more at the management level?
“This is not a work shop for writers (although we can provide that for organizations who are interested) but we hope the seminar will be attended both by those who prepare documents in an organization and by the people who set goals and policies or have direct responsibility for government relations.
“That’s because we think some of the biggest gains the seminar can help achieve will come from improvements in the way the people who write the documents and the people who use the documents work and communicate together.”
Is the seminar about preparing documents that are aimed at the government only?
“No, it’s not. That’s partly because we don’t believe there should ever be such a thing as a document that’s aimed at the government only any more than we believe that there is ever really any such thing as a confidential document.
“We should always assume that anything we put in writing is going to be known by all. There’s an old saying in politics: ‘Never put anything in writing you’re not prepared to see on the front page of the Globe & Mail tomorrow’.
“So in this seminar we’ll be focusing on ways to prepare documents that are effective in meeting their primary goals – whether that be qualifying for a grants program, persuading an official to take or support specific actions that benefit the organization (or to work to prevent actions that would be harmful) or simply to enhance understanding of the organization’s concerns – while also contributing to the broader goal of strengthening support and respect for the organization in the community.
“That’s why one of the questions we encourage clients to ask as they’re preparing written messages is ‘Who else should we sending this to?’ or “Who else should we be telling about this?’
Are you suggesting that organizations should be preparing more documents? It sometimes seems like we’re drowning paper already.
“No, we don’t think most organizations should be preparing more documents or putting more things in writing. In fact, if you adopt the approaches we recommend, you’ll probably find that you need fewer different documents. That can lead to big savings in time and resources.
“It can also help to keep your messages consistent. “One of the most important reasons for putting things in writing in the first place is to make sure that all your publics are receiving the same message; the more different documents you prepare, the greater the chances that different wording may lead to confusion about your real message.
“So – reducing the number of individual documents your organization produces can be one of the greatest benefits of the approach we’ll be recommending at the “Putting It In Writing” seminar.”
What do you think are the most important reasons documents fail to achieve their goals?
“In our experience, there are two main reasons documents don’t work – despite the face that organizations have invested huge amounts of time and effort in their preparation.
“The first is that, far too often, organizations write documents that simply fail to speak to the concerns or requirements of the people they’re trying to influence or persuade. It may be a grant application that fails to respond to the program guidelines of criteria. It might be a background paper trying to arrange a meeting with a Minister or other elected official that fails to identify ways the meeting can help meet the government’s or the individual politician’s own goals. The document might include policy suggestions (or demands) that are, on the face of it, impossible to meet.
“If your document doesn’t meet the guidelines the government has set out, or speak to the government’s objectives as well as your own, or if it asks the impossible – you’ll just be wasting paper and time.
“The second reason documents fail to achieve their goals is that they’re just too hard to read. They’re too long, they contain too much information, they use unnecessarily difficult language; they don’t get to the point or have a clear ‘ask’ – a call to action.
“Remember – the people you’re trying to influence are busy people with many different groups competing for their attention. If your document is too hard to read, chances are it will just keep getting shuffled to the bottom of the pile on a busy official’s desk.
“If you use the approaches we’ll be suggesting at the ‘Putting It In Writing’ seminar, you won’t be producing those kinds of documents in the future.”
That seems like common sense. Why do organizations continue to make those mistakes when they’re preparing documents?
“The biggest single reason document go wrong is that people start writing too soon – before there’s a clear understanding of the goals, the information required or the audiences involved. It’s important to ‘get it right’ before you ‘put it in writing’. If there’s one single idea we hope people will take away from the ‘Putting It In Writing’ seminar – that’s it.