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How Your
Organization's Social-Political Realities Affect What You Write by Lee
Woods
On the job,
your reason for writing letters, memos and proposals can get caught up in a
variety of social and political forces, causing your readers to react
emotionally. People may try to look at office issues objectively, rationally,
but they often make decisions based on fear, jealousy, bias, anger, revenge,
envy, ego clashes, power struggles, charter battles, hidden agendas, sacred
cows, office romances, and other emotional factors. Think about your purpose
and your readers. Are you lighting a fuse?
Office politics and personal
relationships can undermine your purpose, no matter how justified or promising
it may be. Such forces can rarely be detected ahead of time, but to charge
headlong without at least trying to assess your situation is like skipping
nonchalantly through a minefield:
A Checklist
Are
you sending an appropriate message to an appropriate audience at an appropriate
time?
Will your purpose ignite any smoldering issues between you,
management, supervision, peers, subordinates?
Will you be aggravating any
existing personality or ego clashes among friends, enemies, supporters,
neutrals?
Ear to the Ground
Is your purpose
consistent with your organization's culture and climate"?
Is anything
at stake? Recent or pending promotions? Favors due, debts owed? Pride, image,
recognition on the line? Sacred cows in jeopardy? Territorial disputes, charter
squabbles, responsibility issues?
Is the air foul on this subject? If
something goes sour, could you defend your position?
What is your
credibility with this audience? Should you first get preliminary approvals,
opinions, advice, support?
Are there any pressures or priorities that
could block your purpose? Do any laws, policies, or regulations apply?
What objections or resistances could your purpose create? Are you
putting anyone, including your boss, on the spot?
Are you reacting
emotionally? Emotions subside, but the printed word remains.
REMEMBER:
Once you let go of what you've written, it could end up anywhere — even on
the evening news.
Finally, to thine own self be true.
AUTHOR:
Lee Woods is a senior freelance marketing
communications copywriter and a certified SEO copywriter specializing in
promotional materials for both commercial and government organizations.
Reprinted with permission from
ActiveAuthors.com
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