“This course helped us realize that we needed a standard for review and that our comments & feedback were contributing to the poor quality of the documents.”
The company was unable to meet its goal of bidding on projects because the review process was unwieldy: managers, whose primary job didn’t include reviewing, were spending too much time reviewing, their comments often didn’t improve the quality of the documents, and writers often didn’t understand the comments.
The company needed help to ensure that reviewers were aligned in terms of what constituted quality in terms of its documents while establishing guidelines for a review process that would result in fewer iterations, less time required for review, and comments that were easy to understand and that would improve the quality of the document.
Too much time was being spent reviewing for several reasons: the company had no guidance or standards in place for review; consequently, reviewers were commenting on pet peeves and/or things that did little to improve document quality; there was no standard in terms of what constituted quality; too many rounds of review and too many reviewers were involved, and writers were often confused by the feedback.
Via a communication audit, which included a thorough analysis of how the company was conducting its review process and what guidelines the company had established, Hurley Write helped the company
• Find areas for improvement in the review process
• Standardize its review process by establishing agreed-upon criteria
• Establish and prioritize the concepts it should review for
• Establish guidelines for feedback that added value to its documents
At a three-month follow-up, the company reported that it was making progress towards establishing a more effective review process, although they admitted that they were having some difficulty getting all reviewers on board. The company also said that comments to writers were improving in terms of clarity and usefulness, although some continued to review for “pet peeves.”
“This course helped us realize that we needed a standard for review and that our comments & feedback were contributing to the poor quality of the documents.”
