Managing offshored writers?

Subject: Managing offshored writers?
From: Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2004 09:36:42 -0400


sjgarriott wondered: <<The rumor is that my company will be offshoring some of their tech writing responsibilities in the near future. It looks like I will be responsible for managing these resources should it occur. I am a senior tech writer who has tried to dodge the "management" bullet for some time now, but it looks like this one's got my name on it. If anyone out there has had experience with this situation, I would love to hear from you as I create my strategy for using offshored writers to the benefit of my company.>>

I too successfully dodged the management bullet for many years, until I succumbed and became VP then President of the local STC Chapter. It was less painful that I expected, and actually ended up being an exhausting but deeply enriching couple of years. So I can't provide any really good management advice other than to reiterate the oft-neglected "treat your people with respect and prioritize helping them do their jobs". Some day I hope to write a book about how not to manage technical communicators--from the employee's standpoint.

A recent experience in China demonstrated to me that you can never go wrong by learning to understand and honor local customs, and being keenly aware of the countless opportunities for miscommunication. Showing this kind of respect is greatly appreciated, particularly if you're American and thus, have been tarred with the reputation for acting as if "we are the world". As a Canadian, I didn't labor under this burden, but speaking some Mandarin and being more formally polite than many of my hosts earned me enormous amounts of good will, and many smiles, only some of which resulted from my pronunciation. (Took 2 weeks to get tea instead of a fork in restaurants! <g>*)

* The word for tea and a fork, cha, is spelled the same in English (pinyin) if you ignore the diacritical marks, but the pronunciation is clearly different.

In terms of communication difficulties, always pretend that you're talking to early-grade school students. NOT because the people you are going to be dealing with are stupid or naive--but because like these young students, the people you're talking to lack your dozens of years of experience with English idiom, shorthand, and verbal conventions. (We all make certain assumptions in communicating based on what our culture has taught us.)

NEVER write in stupid, patronizing terms. But do carefully review what you're going to say so you can ask yourself: "What assumptions am I making in using this particular wording? Will someone who wasn't brought up in my dialect understand these assumptions?" Asking people to paraphrase what you've said is a good thing, because it helps you see whether they've really understood what you said.

--Geoff Hart ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca
(try geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com if you don't get a reply)


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