BY CHRISTOPHER WARD | Senior Member
Defining Nirvana
In TechComm Nirvana, technical communicators have the resources they need, job security, and are being counseled at the top level of business strategy. This article is a guide to help you on your way to enlightenment, a path that will lead to a place where content is the most pivotal asset for an organization’s continued success.
Would you like to become enlightened?
Let me tell you about the journey and what you will have to ponder to set your mind free and give your words influence.
Buddha said, to obtain Nirvana, one must have proper understanding of the four noble truths (understanding of suffering, cause of suffering, relief of suffering, and the way to end suffering). Like Buddha’s Nirvana, TechComm Nirvana is similar in that you, too, must have proper understanding. Unlike Buddha’s Nirvana, the understanding lies in the questions you ask, not the suffering you experience.
Three questions will put you on the path to Nirvana, and the journey lies in finding the answers.
- Whom do you serve?
- What is the desired outcome?
- Do you have the resources?
Whom Do You Serve?
The first question on your road to enlightenment is also the inspiration for the title of this article. Most would say, “we serve the audience,” and their journey would end. However, the others, the ones seeking true enlightenment, will seek to understand not only “whom” but also “how.” A technical communicator with influence is serving an organization, who in turn is servicing an audience. Let me tell you a story of a bartender.
A printer, a desktop, and a tablet walk into a bar and the bartender looks at the printer and says, “My audience wants print. I will serve you,” and both are happy. The bar owner looks at the bartender and says, “I see you are a happy bartender, are you happy working here?” “Yes,” says the bartender. “Is your audience happy?” asks the owner. “Yes,” says the bartender. Then the owner looks at the bartender and says, “I must now chop off your head and outsource your job, because I am not happy at all.” The bartender goes to his death not understanding why his owner was not happy. Why was the owner not happy? Because the owner wanted the desktop and the tablet to be happy in addition to the printer. A truly enlightened bartender would have served the printer, the desktop, and the tablet. And yet, the bartender would also serve the owner, and even those who have not yet come into the bar.
So Grasshopper, what have we learned from this? If you want to gain influence, then understand that you do not write to an audience, you write to a market. Your business wants to serve all of them, even the ones who are not your customers … yet.
What Is the Desired Outcome?
How can one achieve a desired outcome? With outcomes, not only is it important that you understand why you are asking the question, but it is also important to understand to whom you are asking.
A happy servant, sitting by a brown dog, is watching the sunset. His master approaches and upon seeing the servant, desires to share in his serenity. Smiling at the servant, the servant bows and smiles back. “Does your dog bite?” asks the master. “Why no, Master, my dog does not bite. He is a happy dog.” Pleased with the answer, the master bends down to pet the brown dog. The dog sniffs the master’s hand, then bites it, swallowing two of the master’s fingers. In agony, the master yells at the servant, “I thought you said your dog does not bite!” Puzzled, the servant looks and says, “But master, that is not my dog!”
What do we learn from this? We must first understand to whom we are speaking when we ask this question. We must also understand that if we act without all the information, we could get bitten.
In the 1990s, Borders and Barnes & Noble bookstores had 40% of the total bookselling market. Today, Amazon is the leading retailer for books, almost tripling sales from Barnes & Noble alone. Borders closed all their stores in 2011. Do you think this was the desired outcome for the two bookstore giants?
The market for book buyers did not decrease. In fact, it grew. The difference was information, or lack of information, used to build a strategy. Amazon saw the potential for online sales and even noticed that the market started to prefer that method. They started with usual items like free shipping, but as new technology like eBooks developed, they embraced it.
On your path to enlightenment, you must develop procedures to obtain certain desired outcomes. Since your organization’s strategy is the “truth” you desire, you want to ensure that your procedures align with that strategy. This is the basic understanding for obtaining a desired outcome. A truly enlightened technical communicator will include procedures that allow you to talk to the market and feed that information back to the organization. Helping organizations determine market shifts will give technical communicators influence.
Do You Have the Resources?
When you come to this part of your journey, TechComm Nirvana is within your reach. When writing to a market and aligning your procedures to your business’ strategy, if you do not have the resources to accomplish this, then you must get them. For those who are not enlightened, this task is insurmountable. The enlightened ones hold tight to truth that allows them to fight for all the resources they need. The truth that what they do matters, and matters to everyone.
Professor Eric Clemons from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania has written an article titled, “How Information Changes Consumer Behavior and How Consumer Behavior Determines Corporate Strategy” (http://faculty.washington.edu/mfan/is582/articles/Clemons.pdf). In it, he talks about how consumers’ purchasing behavior has changed due to the accessibility of information. This shift affects all markets, because the number of consumers demanding better content continues to grow. They are driving the demand for content, your content, and this is one of the reasons why what you do is so valuable to organizations.
An enlightened technical communicator understands this and takes strength in it when asking for resources.
Here are some simple questions you can ask to help evaluate if your current resource will aid you in your journey to enlightenment.
- Do you have what you need to write to a market?
- Do your current procedures align with the organization’s strategy?
- Do you have the ability to talk directly to the market?
Answering these questions will help you identify the resources you need and conclude your journey to TechComm Nirvana.
Go and Be Enlightened
I hope this has been helpful and you have a better understanding of the path to TechComm Nirvana. You serve the organization by writing to the market, you always know the desired outcome from aligning your process with strategy, and you matter enough to get the resources you need.
I will leave you with one more bit of wisdom. Ask yourself, “Why do I want influence?” then look at what you do. You share enlightenment. It is the noblest act of mankind.
Socrates says, “in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and, when seen is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right.” Your craft must be kept pure and available to the people who need it the most. In a world of “too big to fail,” the little guy gets stepped on every day. You bring him up, you are his champion, and you must continue. If we let content development get outsourced, if we let our important mission get tucked away under marketing, we did it because we choose not to influence.
You have the questions. You can find the answers. TechComm Nivana is within your grasp!
Christopher Ward, director of sales at WebWorks, specializes in helping teams accomplish big things by better aligning departmental processes with overall company strategies. Christopher’s experience in strategy development began as an analyst for U.S. Army Intelligence and then later moved in to the corporate world when working for Dell computers. His diverse experiences allow him to recognize untapped potential in a company’s overall business strategy and help them achieve that potential. For over the past five years, his mission has been is to increase the value of technical communication departments in the organizations they serve. He has traveled all over the world delivering the message that “Documentation is not a business expense, it is a revenue generating tool.”
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