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Subject:Re: About responsibility and fault From:"Jeff Hanvey" <jewahe -at- lycos -dot- co -dot- uk> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 7 Apr 2003 11:40:26 -0400
This discussion has gotten way far from what I intended to argue. I've never
argued against taking responsibility, but against the idea that we can
control every single variable, especially those of use who are in the lower
echelons, and that therefore *every* inaccuracy in the doc is directly the
fault of the writer's failings.
My issue is about power, and the heirarchal nature of most corporate
structures. Working within these structures - those that are newly imposed
and those that have "just grown up" - means that, often times, our hands are
tied as to just what we can do. This occurs no matter how vocal you are, no
matter how much initiative you take, no matter who efficiently you do your
job or no matter how much knowledge you have in your particular field.
What I've argued is that the writer should be aware of the corporate
structure and know just how far s/he can push his/her initiative to get the
job done. There are, however, boundaries, and those boundaries are often
outside our control. I can beg, plead, and offer chocolate to the
developers, but if s/he doesn't have time to answer my questions (or chooses
to ignore them), even after I've changed tactics, and tried the
capture-in-the-hall, casual question in passing, dropping by to "chat," et
cetera, there's really not much I can do other than continue begging and
pleading and giving chocolate - unless I want to go to my supervisor, and be
labled a tattle-tale and lose all respect.
Taking responsibility and accepting blame are not the same. I've never
argued that any writer should shunt off the responsibility for inaccuracies,
only that *blame* shouldn't be part of the equation. Find out what went
wrong and devise a strategy to avoid that issue next time. Control what you
can control and move on doing the best job you can do.
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