Step 6: Build trust

Build trust with your team members and subject-matter experts. Writing is personal. 

• If you are a civil engineer who is summarizing how a bridge design will benefit the neighborhoods on the east side of town, it’s personal. 
• If you are longtime manager of license applications, the customer letter you draft explaining a change in ID requirements is personal. 

It’s important to respect this when you are revising a draft prepared by a subject-matter expert, whether an engineer, an office manager, or a personnel manager. People become attached to the terminology they use routinely in their profession and may become defensive when you suggest simpler language or shorter explanations. They know that what they have written is correct and think that if you revise it, you will change its meaning.

• Focus on the problem you are trying to solve together, not on the writing.
• Find things to praise about what they have written. 
• Explore with respect the reasoning or history behind why they have written something the way they have: “Tell me about why you write, This is our demand for election , rather than, You are now required to choose.”
• Refer to your rewrites as suggestions:  “Take a look at what I’ve done and see what you think.  Does this work for you? I changed the word abate to fix.  Would this change the meaning or cause problems?”
• Draw the writing team into the discussion so you can listen to people with the same expertise debating among themselves.