The Money Files

In today’s installment of my occasional series interviewing experts in their field, I caught up with Jack Appleman. He’s a proponent of clarity and communication – and he wants people who write for business to just do it a bit better.

Being able to get your ideas across in writing is so important. Without that, you can’t convince, negotiate, delegate or engage your stakeholders. So, let’s dive in.

Hello Jack. What's the mistake you see most from people when it comes to business writing?

The two biggest mistakes are overwriting—conveying the same point multiple times with too many words—and inserting pseudo-sophisticated text in an attempt to impress the readers when most people want clear and straightforward language.

Yes, I see that in comms I get. Hopefully not in what I send out! What tip do you think would most benefit project managers writing about their projects at work, say, in an email or proposal?

Start with a paragraph that succinctly explains the bottom line because readers are increasingly impatient.

For example, begin a project proposal with a compelling paragraph that sums up the most important information and then provide required sections such as goals, required facilities, deliverables, etc. This offers readers a choice: Those who just want the top-line information can stop after the first paragraph while others who want more details can keep reading.

Many project managers get promoted from operational or technical jobs where everyone knows the jargon, to a job where people don't. How can people reframe what they know about technical writing into business writing for a wider audience?

Apply the same principles for both types of writing. Technical writing typically involves communicating instructions or information about technical issues or specific projects, which must be clear, succinct and well-organized—the same skills needed for business emails and other documents.

Often, technical documents are unnecessarily filled with jargon. When writing to a non-technical audience, either avoid the jargon or explain any term that readers may not understand.

OK, great. How can people develop their writing skills?

Use common sense when reviewing what you’ve written. Ask yourself, “Is this good? Would I be satisfied if I were reading it?”

Try to complete your first drafts faster so you can allot more time on the all-important editing phase. You should also consider taking a live or online business writing course or signing up for one-on-one writing coaching.

Effective business writing—for project managers and everyone—is about getting your message across in a clear, concise and well-organized way so the reader understands it and takes your desired action. It’s not any more complicated than that!

Much of what project managers do is computer-mediated communication, either email or instant messaging, or through a project management tool. What are the pitfalls of that and how can project managers get round them?

Today, virtually everyone communicates via email or text messages. Apply the same principles of effective writing regardless of the communication channel, and practice proper etiquette (e.g., complete sentences, no weird abbreviations and correct grammar).

Plus, recognize when the message is too complex or sensitive to send via instant messaging or a text.

Good advice, thank you! How can people find out more about you?

Go to www.successfulbusinesswriting.com or email [email protected].

About Jack

Jack E. Appleman, APR, CBC, business writing instructor and author of the top-selling 10 Steps to Successful Business Writing (2008, ATD Press), has developed innovative teaching methods to help working professionals achieve better results with their writing. The principal of Successful Business Writing, Jack has led workshops, webinars and coaching programs for organizations including HBO, Johnson & Johnson and the U.S. Olympic Committee, which have consistently earned outstanding evaluations. 

Here are 5 tips for better project procurement. To get more details on any of these tips, you can read this article.

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One of the issues I hear often is that project managers don’t have the resources to motivate and reward their teams. Well, I say that you can, if you focus on the right things. Achievement, recognition, the work itself, responsibility, advancement and growth. You can provide those for your project team, can’t you? In this video I look at 5 ways to motivate your team in small ways, every day. I give you some tips for motivating your team (without having to pay bonuses).

Yes, there is such a thing! Not all project procurement processes have to be a struggle for who comes out top and a hugely competitive bidding event. Here are 3 project processes where there isn’t an element of competition.

1. Use a Preferred Supplier

You probably know this already but you might not have considered it as a non-competitive procurement approach.

If you have a preferred supplier, say, for photocopiers, then you are going to get your next photocopier from them. This goes for recruitment agencies sourcing your next project team members, to the company you have worked with for years who always supplies your widgets.

Where a preferred arrangement exists, company policy may actively prevent you from seeking out competition.

The risk here is that you don’t take the time to look at other vendors. Just because your preferred print supplier was competitive a year ago doesn’t make it competitive today. Business models are changing in plenty of sectors. I usually get all my printing from Moo.com but this month I changed to a local print shop as (strangely) they were more competitively priced for the leaflets I needed. They were even kind enough to ask me to check again, as they said they weren’t normally competitively priced with online printers. But in this case, being able to deal with a real human, having a turnaround in 24 hours and not paying for postage really swung it for me.

Also, don’t assume that your past good experience with a supplier is always going to reflect their future performance. As well as their business model and pricing changing, a key change in support or service personnel could mean that the good relationship you had previously isn’t there any longer.

2. Joint Venture

You might come across this on large projects or at a business venture or product level.

A joint venture is where you are contractually in a partnership-type arrangement with another party to work together to provide a service. There’s an agreement in place that requires you to give the work to a particular company (and they, in turn may give you something).

3. Sole-Source Procurement

I hadn’t heard of this until I read Henrique Mora’s PMP® Exam prep guide where he covers the procurement management processes extensively. It’s a good read if you are preparing for the exam (I read the version that’s current for the 5^th Edition).

Sole-source procurement is where the buyer chooses to get a product that is only provided by a single provider. Say, for example, you need a particular kind of roofing tile that is only made by one manufacturer. You’d buy it from them.

You could say this is the same for the vast majority of software too. If you want to buy a particular software tool that you think is right for your business, you can only get it from the vendor. You can’t buy Microsoft Office from Adobe, for example. (This is a poor example because so many large software vendors have a network of resellers where you do have choice about where to get it from. But it holds true for the majority of small/medium sized project management tools like the ones I review.) In healthcare tech many software products are linked to modalities or medical equipment – you have to get the one that ‘matches’.

“The main risks of conducting a sole-source procurement,” Moura writes, “concern the supplier’s economic feasibility and market conditions.”

You can include escrow in your contract if that’s appropriate, or other legal measures as a way of mitigating this if you think it’s worth it.

Benefits of Non-Competitive Procurement

I love the idea of non-competitive procurement.

Not having to sit in endless vendor presentations while the sales people tell you all the features of the product that you know won’t work when you start to get your hands on it.

Not having to prepare detailed business cases and financial models for products that you aren’t recommending, just to prove that you aren’t recommending them for the right reasons.

There are plenty of benefits including being able to get on with the work of your project more quickly because your team isn’t tied up in knots doing procurement activities.

However, there are drawbacks as well, not least because there’s an assumption that you are getting the best/right deal for your business. You might be, but if you have a feeling that actually you aren’t, it is worth talking to your manager or the PMO to see if there is flexibility to ditch the normal arrangements and go out to tender for this particular piece of work.

I’ve written before about treating the company’s money as if it is your own, and if you wouldn’t go ahead with the non-competitive procurement if it was your cash, then you’re right to question your own instincts here too.

It has been a long time since I did AS Level Law aged 17, and I remember contract law being the less interesting part of the course. However, some of it is still relevant to my job today. For a contract to be legal, certain conditions have to be met. There are 5 conditions to fulfil before you can say that your contract can be legally entered into.

1. There must be an offer

There must be an offer and an acceptance. If I don’t offer you something, there is no contract. If you don’t accept it, there is no contract.

I can’t contract you to do something that you don’t want to do because you haven’t accepted my offer. You’re within your rights not to sign a contract with a supplier if the deal isn’t right for you. Just like you would stand your ground with those door-to-door sales people, you can stand your ground with a supplier on your project too.

There’s often back and forth at this point (as there should be) as you refine the offer into something that you can both live with.

2. There must be consideration

This means that something has to be exchanged. Your project suppliers offer you goods or services and you pay them money in exchange.

It doesn’t have to be money. You could give them goods or services back, or exposure to your client base or something else that you both agree to. But there has to be some give and take.

Again, there’s negotiation to be done here. Once you’ve agreed on the offer you might go back and forth on the consideration (the fee) that you are willing to pay, and how this will be structured: all in one go, payment phased over the life of the project and so on.

3. There must be legal capacity

I expect this varies from country to country, but the people entering into the contract must be legally able to enter into an agreement. I remember reading about a case where a toddler had accidentally purchased some expensive stuff online through random button pressing on a parent’s device (it happens) and the case concluded that the family didn’t have to pay as the toddler didn’t have the legal capacity to enter into a contract. I think they had to return the goods though – getting your child to purchase all your supplies is not a legal method of getting resources for your project for free! I’ve looked but I can’t find a citation for that case – if you know of one, let me know and I’ll update this article to reference it. I did find this one where a 3 year old bought a car on ebay, but the case didn’t go to court for contract law to be tested.

You may have capacity in law, but you may not have capacity in terms of your company’s due process. For example, perhaps only Directors can sign contracts above a certain value, or you can only enter into a contract in certain circumstances or with certain providers. While I’m not sure that would hold up in court, it would definitely get you into hot water at work, so make sure you check your company’s contract signing policy and get advice from your Legal team. That will avoid you entering into any deals and contracting the company in ways that they would prefer you didn’t.

4. There must be legal purpose

This simply means that the subject of the contract needs to comply with the law.

In other words, you can’t contract someone to steal for you. Or do anything else illegal. But you wouldn’t do that anyway, would you?

5. There must be intention

There must be the understanding on both sides that this agreement could be enforced by a court if it came to it. You must go into the contract understanding that it is legally binding and that you intend for it to be so. You aren’t signing up to something on a best endeavours basis, or without realising that it’s a legal document.

This is all broadly common sense, but it’s there to protect businesses and individuals.

I don’t know if these are the same conditions enshrined by your local laws, but for UK and US laws these seem to hold true. What’s the situation where you are? Drop a note in the comments to let us know!