Don't be a blocker

My 5 top tips for getting stuff done

Throughout my career, one of my biggest challenges has been to find the time to do my job while managing tricky stakeholders. This is particularly hard when you are seen as a blocker.

Here’s the thing. Your stakeholders are very busy people. You’re not dealing with people who have time on their hands.

So it will really help you if you learn to work fast and make time for the stuff that really matters. If you are seen to be a blocker by your stakeholders, it will not help you. Trust me.

Here are 5 tips that have helped me.

1. Learn to prioritise

All work is not created equal.

And the digital space moves quickly. What you see online today is not what you see tomorrow, and changes can be made in a heartbeat. It’s part of what makes it such a dynamic space to work in.

That means you can be creative in how you manage your workload.

My team once received a request to add a crappy sentence to a web page. I considered the optics - this came from a senior manager, who had previously expressed reservations about our ability to get work done. The target page wasn’t in our top 20 of most visited pages. So I assessed this as low risk. I asked 2 different members of my team to make the change. They refused. Why? Because the sentence didn’t meet our standards.

I knew that the sentence wasn’t great. Yet I took the strategic decision to publish it, unchanged, so that:

• our disaffected stakeholder would have a reason to trust us

• my team could focus on other, more important work

I pushed it through. Four weeks later, we removed the sentence. The analytics and user feedback showed the sentence didn’t solve the problem the stakeholder wanted to fix, and the users hadn’t even noticed it. And I could prove it.

But in the meantime, how much time did we waste discussing this? And what didn’t we do as a result?

Some tasks on your list will definitely be worth your time and effort. Others definitely will not. You need to figure out which is which, so you can spend your time on the stuff that matters most.

2. Be agile

Once you learn agile ways of working, you’ll never look back. I promise you. One of the game-changers is the impact you can make by publishing little and publishing often. And telling people about it.

While we rolled out the new Birkbeck website, we needed to put processes in place that meant it didn’t degrade over time. Which meant taking on publishing tasks that had historically fallen to administrative staff who were already doing other jobs.

So we introduced Fixit Friday. This was our commitment to stakeholders that we would action small changes each Friday, so long as the requests met these criteria:

• They had to submit their requests by 12pm on Thursday; otherwise, the tasks would be scheduled for the following Friday

• The changes had to be straightforward factual changes or updates, rather than style issues (so requests to rewrite a sentence because Professor X didn’t like it didn’t qualify)

• Each request had to be actionable within 30 minutes, based on an assessment

• Staff who requested the change had to agree not to see the changes before publication

Every Friday, the team and I would blast through these changes and, as team lead, I would publicise our work by:

• confirming (in writing) to all requesters that their changes had been made

• including the information in my monthly reports to management and my community presentations

For the first time, the wider community had a sense of how much work we had and how much we did. This bought us a lot of goodwill, and countered the narrative that we wanted to block or police their work. It also meant that people stopped clamouring for publishing access to the website.

But even more importantly, Fixit Friday enabled us to create time that we could use for the work we really wanted to do - while bringing our stakeholders with us.

3. Talk to your stakeholders

Most people are sensible enough to appreciate that you will be juggling priorities. But they won’t know this if you don’t tell them.

I was once in charge of a business-as-usual (BAU) team that had more than 100 work requests in their backlog, 20% of which had been there for more than 6 months. Yet we hadn’t told our stakeholders what was happening to their requests.

People will always fill knowledge gaps with negative stories. The narrative that existed about me and my team was that we were unhelpful, inefficient and arrogant. Yet we weren't any of those things.

It’s our job, as content specialists, to convert stakeholders into trusted partners. Part of doing this is about being really great at communicating with them and letting them know what’s going on.

And, if you really can’t get to their request right away, you can be creative. You may not be able to tackle the whole request now, but could you chunk it up into smaller quick fixes and deliver on these first? Then make a plan for how you’ll tackle the rest, and when.

Whatever you decide, let your stakeholders - your partners - know. Pick up the phone, send an email or - even better - book in a chat.

Help them see that you really do care. I promise you it will help.

4. Streamline your processes

The aim of working on digital content is, ultimately, to publish. Yet sometimes our processes can get in the way.

I once had a minor content problem to solve. The publishing process we had in place stipulated that a lot of people needed to be involved in the task: me, 2 stakeholders, 2 content buddies, an interim checker, and a final checker. That made a grand total of 7 people, 5 of whom (including me!) were experienced content designers.

Looking back on this, I am struck by the following:

• Human cost: working in this way contributed to genuine imposter syndrome for me, because it made me feel that I simply wasn’t good enough to develop publishing-worthy solutions on my own. Even though I had been doing it for years.

• Opportunity cost: I was genuinely taken aback that all these talented people were expected to work with me on a pretty minor problem. Because I knew how busy they were - so what were they not doing in order to help me?

Anyone who’s worked with me knows I’m a big fan of process - and I have developed plenty in my time. But I also know that processes have a tendency to remain unchanged - even if the specific circumstances that birthed them no longer exist.

Your processes should really enable you to get work done, not get in the way. So have a look at them - are they fit for purpose? Are you working as efficiently as you can? If the answer is no in either case, then it’s time to review your processes. And iterate.

5. Empower your people

The best content experiences I’ve had have revolved around collaboration and empowerment. It’s something I wish for everyone, because this approach boosts people by giving them the confidence they need to deal with stakeholders better, work more efficiently and be willing to take risks.

Just a few ideas that come to mind:

• Training: The digital space is constantly changing, and new challenges will arise. So this is a key priority. Onboard staff really well when they start so they add value sooner rather than later, then implement continuous learning. If knowledge gaps are showing up - perhaps a lack of Google Analytics expertise or insufficient knowledge of accessibility requirements - then put training in place. Don’t rely on your quality assurance folk to address these problems - it’s not fair on them and by then it’s too late. Instead, empower all of your staff so that they will be in a position to ask for support, not rely on it. This will not only upskill your staff, but it will mean you don’t waste valuable time.

• Share learnings: we need to share our learnings - whether that’s through show and tells, blogs, lunch and learns - whatever. If someone learns something that would benefit other people, then give them the support they need and the right forum in which to share it. Not only will that benefit your community, but it will give those staff opportunities to develop the skills they need in order to progress.

• Make sure feedback is constructive: I’ve worked with content checkers who were so brutal in their feedback that they made colleagues cry. But I’ve also had brilliant chats with content checkers who asked questions that genuinely made me see something with fresh eyes. So who do you think I sought out or avoided when I needed to talk things through - even at the cost of delaying my work? It feels strange to say this, but feedback should be helpful rather than harmful. And it needs to be genuinely empowering. If you feel that this isn’t happening in your context - or if you’ve noticed that people are reacting badly when you give them feedback on their work - then you’re doing it wrong.

• Good enough is enough: I’ve worked with great content specialists. But I’ve noticed that some people find it hard to draw a line under work - and will continue polishing it, without being mindful of the time they are taking. But, unlike print, digital publishing is never a one-shot deal. You should be aiming to iterate your content time and again, but based on real evidence of user response, not opinion. Good enough in the digital space really is enough.

About me

Hi. I’m Jane Van de Ban. After decades of working in the UK public sector, I now work for myself, so I can spend time on what I love. Right now, that means 2 things:

• Stakeholder management training for content designers: I was a union activist and content design lead for years, and that meant that managing stakeholders was the key to getting things done. So I’m good at it, and want to help you.

• Coaching for content designers: Before I was a content designer, I was a web editor. Before that, I was a print editor. Content is something I know a lot about - and as a former team lead, I understand the challenges you face. If you’re struggling with an aspect of your work, I’d like to help.

Let’s have a chat! Contact me to find out more.