Good and quickly seldom meet.
– George Herbert,
quoted as “Thought du jour” in “Social Studies” in Globe & Mail June 16, 2010
and seen in John Robson’s “Wish I’d Said That” feature on 2020 Oct 19
Maybe so, but that’s exactly the challenge in schedule-driven activities like, say, proposals. So in the slow times it’s worth thinking about how to make good and quickly meet more frequently. You can accelerate the creation of good responses if you do these things:
- Work ahead. I’m not a fan of boilerplate — stock answers that can be used in many proposals — because the questions aren’t stock. But we can still do significant work outside the response period.
- Start short. Insist that writers start with one-page answers before launching on the 5- or 15-page response. Some teams use storyboards. Whatever. Just start with a short answer and then go on to the next step.
- Use reviews. Everyone wants to do good all by themselves, but there isn’t time for that. Opening-up our work to review is the shortest shortcut we have to getting there.