Objectives of the Training
If mismanaged, the writing process is probably the most expensive of the “hidden” costs in business today. When analyses, policies, proposals, and reports undergo needless revision after needless revision, not only do these documents become preposterously expensive, but writers soon become dispirited and cease to give their best effort. When that happens, managers spend the majority of their time writing when they should merely be reviewing.

Participants learn:

• to give a clear assignment – and to make sure it’s clear
• to specify the document’s occasion, purpose, scope, and audience
• to provide a good model for the writer to follow
• to schedule the writing and set realistic deadlines
• to delegate to the right person
• to be consistent in editorial preferences
• to avoid the urge to impose a personal stamp on the writing
• to edit only for (1) technical and legal accuracy and (2) consistency with your organization’s policy – and to leave "style" alone
• to provide courteous, timely, and effective feedback
• to justify, in ways the writer can understand, every editorial change

Approach
Participants receive the short (26-page) Managing Writers manual one week before the training and read it before attending. In class, we focus on (1) role-playing exercises designed to help participants clarify writing assignments and (2) reviewing and editing exercises that help participants identify text that needs to be edited. By far the primary thrust of the workshop is to help participants learn when to edit, and when – as difficult as this may be – to leave the text alone. It must be understood that this is not a writing workshop per se. Instruction is restricted to the managing of others' writing.

Tailoring the training
To customize the training, we develop exercises that realistically address issues unique to each organization. We ask that, at least two weeks before the program, you send us samples of the sorts of documents that participants assign, review, and edit – not samples of their own writing, but of documents they actively manage. Some of these documents are used verbatim in the workshop (as examples for discussion and revision). Others are modified so that they (1) exemplify distinct writing problems or (2) result in documents that require absolutely no revision. It's when participants wish to edit the latter that the point hits home.

Format
Managing Writers is a 6-hour program, and it can be formatted in two ways: either in an all-day session or in two 3-hour sessions over consecutive mornings.

Enrollment
Maximum enrollment is 15.