Speaker:
Saul Carliner
Meeting notes by: Brenda and Chuck Orbell
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Saul Carliner, executive vice president of Fredrickson Communications, Inc., and immediate past president of STC, held the attention of the technical communicators attending the November STC-PMC meeting when he predicted that we would need to learn "the fine art of InfoWrangling." As the pace of development of newer, more versatile information technologies quickens, the business environment becomes increasingly more complex and competitive. Carliner's InfoWangler is an extremely versatile technical communicator who not only adapts rapidly to the changing technology but also incorporates problem solving and interpersonal skills (facilitation) to move seamlessly between the different genres of the traditional technical documents, as well as those of marketing and training.
Intellectual capital
According to Carliner, companies are employing more sophisticated methods of evaluating the "intellectual capital" embodied within their corporate braintrust. "Human capital" he described as the innate value of the expertise of the key employees. "Structural capital" represents the value of that unique knowledge which is captured in some form of proprietary documentation such as procedures and policies, thus transferable to experts within the organization. "Customer capital" describes the additional value of an organization due to the recognition by customers of the organization's unique capabilities. In economic terms this is more commonly known as "goodwill" and is quantified on the ledgers as such. Carliner's point was that the more closely aligned with the client company's "intellectual capital," or perception of it, the more valuable and therefore marketable the InfoWrangler would be.
Meet the challenge
Carliner identified several skills and attitudes that technical communicators should develop to meet the challenges of InfoWrangling:
- Process skills: Technical communicators need skills beyond basic writing and editing. They must be comfortable with a broad range of media (print and online), a number of genres (documentation, reports, manuals), more than one type of communication (technical, training, marketing), and be able to be the "guide on the side, not the sage on the stage."
- Technical skills: Technical communicators need more technical skills than just using software to produce documents. Increasingly, they need to understand technical subjects as well.
- Industry and business skills: technical communicators need to better understand how people employ information technology, and they need to embrace the language and industry-specific know-how in order to maximize the value our profession brings to the table.
Carliner also pointed out that, in order to be most effective, technical communicators must
- get involved early in the communication process
- have access to senior executives
- listen to clients
- provide products and services with sizzle
Technical communicators who master the fine art of InfoWrangling will have no trouble demonstrating to clients that value, the intellectual capital, of the their work. The modern technical communicator who takes to hear Carliner's tip--jobs are a date, not a marriage--and works toward developing a broad and flexible skill mix can more effectively and profitably wrangle this age of information.
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