Re: Can someone learn to be detail-oriented?

[John Posada <jposada01 -at- YAHOO -dot- COM>]

I've been keeping out of this conversation, but...hey,
it's lunch time and I'm bored :-)

I'm not detail oriented. I'm not a good editor and
when my boss asks me if he/she should check something
I've done, I tell him/her that I want as many eyeballs
looking at the work as many times as possible.

Here's the problem I've seen with people that are TOO
detail oriented...they never get their s*** done!
There's always another double-space-after-period to
fix, always another obscure sentence structure to
rewrite, another fact to check for the 4th time,
another ALT tage to create.

They are so directed toward making the perfect
document that instead of getting the information into
someone's hands where it is of the most use and
getting on to the next document, they agonize over the
one document where nobody can use it and never get to
the next project.

This is where people fault Microsoft, where I don't.
Get it out there first, then clean it up.
(gasp...heretic...scum-of-the-earth!)

Go to the "zero tolerance" user and say: "I can get
the document with 95% of the format correct and 99%
technically correct to you two weeks or a perfect
document to you in four weeks. Which do you prefer?"

I've worked with writers who were driven to perfection
and details were their bread and butter. Nobody
noticed (or cared) how perfect the document was, but
instead, I was asked to pickup all the projects that
he hadn't gotten to yet, and delivered them with flaws
and all.

(Did anyone care that the line width connecting two
elements in a graphic was 2pt wide and another line
was 3.25pts?)

Granted...certain fields require a greater degree of
perfection than others; the nuclear industry, the
instruction book on the new heart transplant device,
etc. However, to catagorically detirmine that
perfection is next to godliness is making a
detirmination that causes many of our customers and
clients to suffer.

As far as a government agency requiring perfection,
we've all hear the saying that makes government
workers go ballistic...everyone together in four-part
harmony..."Close enough for government work"

> It takes a little discipline. "Detail-orientation"
> is not genetic. It's not
> a race or a religion. It's a mode.

So is never missing a deadline or committment.

FLAME ON!!

--- "Higgins, Lisa" <LHiggins -at- CARRIERACCESS -dot- COM>
wrote:
> Well, Jill, and a hearty "You're welcome" from those
> of us who spent time
> and effort replying to your post asking for help!
>
> > I said this environment is detail-oriented, I
> heard a chorus of "I'm not
> and > I do just fine." That's not the point. You're
> also not in this
> environment:
> > contract at government agency, the specific task
> involves writing and
> > editing standards FOR standards. My attitude
> towards pickiness is
> > irrelevant; the client has zero tolerance for
> errors.
>
> Interesting assumption. Have been. Did fine, despite
> my 'deficiency.'
>
> It is very simple. Someone who is not
> detail-oriented needs to do the
> following:
>
> 1. Make lists of things to check for.
> 2. Check for those things, in whatever order you are
> comfortable.
>
> A simple matrix will do just fine. Write the chapter
> numbers at the top of
> the page, then write identified problem areas along
> the side. Go through the
> matrix, check off the items.
>
> It takes a little discipline. "Detail-orientation"
> is not genetic. It's not
> a race or a religion. It's a mode.
>
> The challenge isn't so much in the difficulty of the
> exercise as it is in
> the discipline required to do it. The problem areas
> and specific style
> issues may take a while to identify. The discipline
> issue is there or it
> isn't. I wouldn't give it more than a couple of
> weeks or so. The error rate
> on identified points shouldn't be significantly
> higher than it is for any
> new writer.
>
> Lisa.
>

===
John Posada, Merck Research Laboratories
Sr Technical Writer, WinHelp and html
(work) john_posada -at- merck -dot- com
(pers) jposada01 -at- yahoo -dot- com
732-594-0873
_________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=