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Brian Das reports: <<Nobody here knows how to use MS Word properly. Fine.>>
It's not fine in the least, but it's one of those things we all have to deal
with. I rarely pass a day at work without having to help someone through a
Word glitch. C'est la guerre.
<<My predecessor designed a handful of templates, which were all buggy and
unstable, loaded with "WordArtt" and text boxes and garbage styles. She
wrote 100 pages of training material and gave every single employee a half
day of training on how to use the templates. Everybody hated the templates;
few people used them.>>
Sounds like a clear message that you needed to redo the templates. Make sure
your boss recognizes you for this next performance appraisal.
<<They asked me to fix the templates, which I did. They're now simple and
refined and elegant and blah blah blah... I get almost daily phone calls
asking people to create a new template.>>
Nothing succeeds like success, huh? Commiserations--though if you look at
this the right way, it's a clear sign that people value you and appreciate
what you're doing for them. (It's also proof of the universal rule that many
people are too lazy to learn something themselves and would rather have
someone else do it for them. The glass is half empty or half full, depending
on your viewpoint.)
On the plus side, you'll eventually create templates for all possible
eventualities. After a while, you can simply be able to say "use the x
template" instead of creating a new one. Here's a shortcut that might help:
If you create a "master" template that contains all your common style
features (e.g., body text styles, company logos, etc.), you can define all
subsequent templates based on that first one: that way, you don't have to
reinvent the wheel each time. Add features to the master template as
required, so all other templates update automatically.
<<... my boss [is] suggesting more training for people. She's thinking,
"Teach a man to fish" etc. etc.>>
Training will certainly reduce the magnitude of the problem, but templates
are like anything else you don't use regularly: 3 weeks after you've been
taught how to do the job, you've forgotten how to do it next time. You'll
still have to remind people how to use the templates. Think of this as an
opportunity to maintain ongoing relationships with people. Sure, that takes
lots of time, but it's also an investment that repays itself over time.
<<She's also trying to think of ways to enforce the use of templates>>
Can't be done; "it's impossible to develop something foolproof because
Nature always evolves a better fool". People will always figure out a way
around them. The trick is to make using the templates so much easier than
not using them that people want to remember how. If you haven't already done
so, make the existing templates available via your intranet and include
really short documentation telling the users how to use the templates.
<<I didn't get in to this career path to be Tommy Template.>>
Perhaps not, but look at it this way: What better way to get people on your
side and liking you than to be seen as the guy who is always there to solve
their problems? If the people who keep asking are managers, this is also a
great way to recession-proof your job: people they like and depend on are
always the last ones to get the axe.
--Geoff Hart, geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada
"Wisdom is one of the few things that look bigger the further away it
is."--Terry Pratchett
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