RE: Technical Communication and GTD? (take II)

["McLauchlan, Kevin" <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com>]

Don't "tell" them.  Say it in e-mail. Send the same e-mail to all at the
same time.
All the e-mails should be identical, except the identity of the
person/project who has higher priority than the one being addressed by
the current copy.
And make the references circular, of course.  If you can arrange a
moebius topology of prioritization, all the better. I've never been
able.

(Joe gets a message saying that currently his project is higher in
priority than Victoria's, but lower than Cynthia's. Cynthia's message
says she's ahead of Joe, but behind Chuck. Chuck's says he's ahead of
Cynthia, but behind Victoria, and of course Victoria learns that she's
got higher priority than Chuck, but is behind Joe...)

If you have more than two competing projects, chances are small that
their leaders will all get together in one room to discuss what you said
to each of them separately.  So they'll never know that the references
all go in a circle (or that moebious...)

Then stand back and watch the battle.  When anyone approaches you to
make a decision, tell them that you would be happy to decide in that
person's favor, but you don't make policy, you just implement policy.
The principals must sort out priority among themselves and then present
you with the result of their deliberations (use that word; makes it
sound like something more elevated than the cat-fight that it will
actually be), so that you can know officially what The Company considers
its order of priorities. 

If somebody gets demanding or nasty, say "Could you repeat that slower,
please?  I need to the others know why their projects have dropped in
priority." Or, just smile and nod and after the bully has left, write
the e-mail and send to him/her, prefaced with "Is this what you wanted
me to understand from your visit to my office/cublcle this morning?"
You get to decide whether to CC everybody else right away, or to wait
until you have a reply that you can then pass on to all the other
project leads, accompanying your apology for their "demotion".  Either
they'll acquiesce - in which case your bully friend was correct in
her/his estimation of her/his importance (or of the project's), or
they'll step up the battle, but at least others will come to you with
more than bluster when they finally do.

Oh, did I mention, have a sense of humor and a thick skin.

 - Kevin


> -----Original Message-----
> From: 
> techwr-l-bounces+kevin -dot- mclauchlan=safenet-inc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr
-l.com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+kevin.mclauchlan=safenet->
inc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Gene Kim-Eng
> Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2009 12:21 PM
> To: Technical Writing
> Subject: Re: Technical Communication and GTD? (take II)
> 
> If you *really* want priorities from above, tell the 
> owners of every project you have that someone 
> else is higher on your list than they are.
> 
> Gene Kim-Eng
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^





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