Management Gone Awry: So Many Tails, So Few Dogs...
I just turned in a commissioned article for a well-know magazine and was surprised to receive back an edited copy to proof that had all of my stylized text eliminated. Words I had deliberately put into bold or even had quoted were no longer any different from the prose around them. Given that my subject is of a technical bent, this was a definite problem.
When queried about the situation, the production editor informed me that their workflow starts with them stripping out all non-textual elements, pouring the text into an XML markup system, then applying standard styles based on their corporate style guidelines. Words that I wanted offset would always be lost because what I wanted to have highlighted and what they were able to highlight and keep highlighted throughout the production cycle were very different.
Once I stopped grinding my teeth in frustration, I recognized another instance of one of the greatest problems in modern business, a problem I call the tail wagging the dog.
If you've spent any time around any sort of company, even just a customer support department, you know exactly what I mean. It's when the accounting department determines what airlines you can use because the airline has a "better accounting backend" or when your expenditures have to be approved by someone in accounting who doesn't actually know your job, but has control over...
When queried about the situation, the production editor informed me that their workflow starts with them stripping out all non-textual elements, pouring the text into an XML markup system, then applying standard styles based on their corporate style guidelines. Words that I wanted offset would always be lost because what I wanted to have highlighted and what they were able to highlight and keep highlighted throughout the production cycle were very different.
Once I stopped grinding my teeth in frustration, I recognized another instance of one of the greatest problems in modern business, a problem I call the tail wagging the dog.
If you've spent any time around any sort of company, even just a customer support department, you know exactly what I mean. It's when the accounting department determines what airlines you can use because the airline has a "better accounting backend" or when your expenditures have to be approved by someone in accounting who doesn't actually know your job, but has control over...
Continue reading about Common management problem #1: the tail wagging the dog at The Intuitive Life Business Blog.
posted by Dave Taylor at
7:58 PM
