Date: October 28, 2000

My work this week has given me a good introduction to Northrup King, its organizational structure, and the written materials employees produce. Because you've done such a fine job scheduling my time here, I've been able gather a good deal of information in this first week and begin to make some decisions regarding where this project should go next week.

Work completed, October 24-28
Following the schedule you developed before I came in, I've talked with executives in most of Northrup King's divisions: plant operations, finance, plant engineering, sales, merchandising, and communications.

Most of our conversations have grown from your organization's self assessment and materials I received before coming in. I've asked people in all divisions to describe the major strengths and weaknesses in Northrup King's written materials, examining both internal and external documents. In many cases, we've discussed specific problems connected to writing within a particular department.

In addition, I've gathered examples of both strong and weak documents from the executives with whom I've visited. Although most people I interviewed were able to provide examples during the interview itself, several people are still gathering examples for me. From this initial group of interviews it seems likely that I will have collected between 250-300 examples (most short!). Since most of my time has been scheduled in interviews, I haven't read most of these documents, though I have catalogued them all in association with a specific interview.

I've especially enjoy the several opportunities I have had to work with collaborative teams while they are drafting documents because working with people in the composition stage enables me to get a clearer sense of the strategies groups use as they write and why these may not be successful.

Work in Progress
This afternoon I am meeting with the office administration from across the company, collecting writing samples from them, and discussing their concerns about writing at Northrup King.

Direction for Future Work, October 31 - November 17
Next week I am scheduled to be in Des Moines visiting the Correspondence Unit and the company's legal counsel.

In the following two weeks, there are at least two ways in which I could spend my time back in Ames:

1. I could read and analyze the examples I'm collecting, ask for more examples to fill in any gaps, write a report identifying strengths and weaknesses, and recommend subjects for this summer's training modules to respond to those weaknesses.
2. I could work with writers in individual departments on specific writing projects, providing individual feedback and training and using that information to help me design the summer's training modules.
3. A combination of 1 and 2.

I think both these options could be a good use of my time with your company. I think perhaps the strongest option would be the third. While I can make general guesses about writing based on analyzing documents, I would feel more confident about the utility of my summer courses if I knew the employees better–well enough to develop a since of what they would like to see happening in their own writing and the writing across the company. It has been my experience that employees who feel invested in the work the consultant has undertaken feel less threatened by and more supportive of initiatives that come out of a consultant's visit. I am, however, happy to approach the next three weeks in whatever way you think best serves Northrup King's needs.

I'll look forward to talking with you about these issues at the end of next week.

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