Barker Chapter 6
In Chapter 6 of the Barker book, we read about "Planning and Writing your Documents." Chapter 6 talks about Development teams, Writing teams, and a lot of task management. Like usual, this chapter combined a lot of common sense methods with actual ways to carry it out. I found the "Documentation Plan" section from page 207 to be very interesting. Barker says that you can carry out all of your ideas by "the power of your personality, your charismatic leadership, your gift for higher math, and your financial savvy." Or, Barker says, you can use management plans as your "genious." As long as you have a reason for your documentation plans and you set aside clear tasks for everybody - your plans will work just fine. To me, Barker is saying that even though some people may have more charisma or personality, they might not be the best at planning these processes. Form a plan and stick to it - and it will all come together in the end.
posted by Jordan @ 11:43 AM
6 Comments:
I agree with Barker that some people are easily able to carry out their ideas just by relying on their natural charisma, personality, etc.
Sometimes, in the right circumstances, your goals will achieve themselves when you don't even work towards them.
I wish this happened more often rhetorical theory classes.
Reading this chapter and the comments made about it made me think of politicians and their spin doctors. Most often, the politicians are the ones with the charisma and personality, while the spin doctors are the ones with the organization and know how. This is just on example of how frequently this goes on today.
This chapter touches on some of the material we have been discussing in Professor Haas’s online class about project management. It may seem tedious at first planning out every detail, but it will save time in the long run. Ideally, each team member will know where they are supposed to be and how long their tasks should take. If there are deviations, the plan can be adjusted accordingly to keep things moving.
Meetings, meetings, and more meetings (pg191); it's the way of business. This is one of the areas that I have problems. While I know using the team and planning out the details are the right way to get things done, they're also the slow way. It's very tempting at times to just do it yourself to speed up the process. The problem with that (as I've found on several occasions) is that you don't end up with the product that was needed and you have to start all over. All the time you thought you had saved was actually wasted.
When I read this chapter, I couldn't help but think of a project I did (with a group) last year. We split up into teams (research, writing, organizing, etc.), and I think it made the process much easier and more efficeint. I think that planning out things ahead of time is the best way to do things in most cases.
At my job, planning is rarely done. Often there will be a big project that my manager would like to have done and tells people to come and help out with the project at a certain time, but when we all get there, no one really knows what it is we are supposed to be doing. I can't help thinking that if he had just briefed us earlier and told everyone what he wants done, we could have sorted out what we all had to do, instead of stand around for 15 minutes trying to figure out what everyone is supposed to be doing.
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