Manage the Approval Process

Stop e-mailing Word docs

by Ann Wylie, president, Wylie Communications Inc.

Sign on a newspaper reporter's desk: "The strongest desire is neither love nor hate. It is one person's need to change another person's copy."

— Gilbert Cranberg, Columbia Journalism Review

You don't win the approval process war comma by comma. If you're begging for authority, article by article, to choose whether "that" or "which" is the right word to use in the fourth paragraph, you've already lost. In fact, the only way to win the war is for the communication group to own the approval process.

How to fix it? My 13-step system for taking control of the approval process is too lengthy to cover here. But here's one way to start running the approval process so it doesn't run you:

Stop e-mailing Word docs.

In the short run, sending out digital copy makes your life easier. Punch "send," and you've distributed the story to all the reviewers.

But in the long run, sending out digital copy makes your life harder. That's because digital copy invites wholesale rewriting. (After all, armed with a screen full of text and the Highlight Changes tool, you'd hack away at the copy, too, wouldn't you?)

Instead of e-mailing Word documents, try faxing, distributing via interoffice mail or e-mailing PDFs. This makes indiscriminate revising difficult for the reviewer.

Some communicators deliver documents personally, standing by the content experts' desks until they've finished the review. Others have finessed this procedure to the point where they're able to debate the merits of leaving it on the reviewer's chair vs. her desk. (The chair wins.)

One of my clients actually shows up with the manuscript in one hand, a Twix bar in the other. "I bribe them with chocolate," she says. "If they're looking at the candy bar, they're looking at the copy."

Need more techniques for creating a structure that makes your copy easier to read and write? Check out Ann's workshops and learning tools.

About the author

Ann Wylie runs a company called Wylie Communications Inc. Ann works with communicators who want to reach more readers and with organizations that want to get the word out. To learn more about her training, consulting or writing and editing services, call Ann at 816/997-8753 or e-mail her at ann@wyliecomm.com. Get a FREE subscription to Ann's e-mail newsletter at http://www.wyliecomm.com/newsletter_signup.shtml.

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