Conference Impressions – Interview with a First-Timer

By Ginny Silhanek

Do you remember when you attended your first national STC conference? You probably felt starryeyed and wondered what hot topics to learn about first. Although she is a Senior Member of STC, our own P&P newsletter editor, Lois Marsh, was excited to participate in her first conference this year. I recently interviewed Lois about her experience.

Networking

As a technical writer in the financial sector, she was able to meet and share experiences with “lots of people who work with P&P in financial services”. She has already been in touch with a number of people via email. This is extremely important, according to Lois, since most of the people she spoke with feel “isolated and short on technologies to support their efforts”.

“We often work in small teams who are employed directly by individual business units within large corporations. We have no way to find each other and compare best practices or share resources. Why? Because our craft is not well understood or recognized in organizations where there are formal compliance or legal departments. It’s assumed that business units will simply comply with policies and write their own procedures. There is little recognition of formal writing teams who help the folks on the ground interpret and implement legalistic policies.”

As a first-timer, Lois explained further that she found it “very easy” to network since she attended the first-timers’ session, the international reception, and the P&P business meeting. The business meeting was open to all attendees as a way to learn more about STC’s continuous endeavors for process improvement. Although this was Lois’ first conference, she was not shy about presenting her knowledge and sharing her 10 years of experience. As a P&P Progression presenter, though she regretted missing “all those other great presentations!”

Workshops

Lois found three great workshops relevant to her work. Her favorite was P&P 101, facilitated by Raymond Urgo. “Raymond is a really wonderful presenter, and his material was relevant to both experienced people and those new to P&P.”

In addition, she enjoyed Michael Tillmans’ workshop on Cross-Functional Process Analysis. Michael confirmed that she has been on the right track with her own analyses in two ways. First, he restricts the number of shapes in process flowcharts to two: rectangles for steps, and diamonds for decisions. Michael and Lois concurred that a lot of specialized shapes distract participants from the real job: helping different groups understand what to expect from each other and identifying points of conflict among them.

Lois added that she valued the information she gained from Annette Reilly’s presentation at the panel discussion on P&P for Compliance. Annette has vast experience with audits of all kinds, but she focused on Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), the stringent new regulatory environment. Annette discussed the importance of “key” process controls that SOX auditors expect to see identified – those that affect areas that could have a material impact on a corporation’s financial statement. Also, she pointed out that key controls should focus not only on the dollar amount, but on the type of transaction. For example, many small transactions of a certain type could slip under the radar, but, collectively, create a major impact on the financial health of an organization.

Outlook

Lois foresees a growing need for P&P specialists who provide excellence in process analysis, identification and critical analysis of process controls, and development of clear procedures and work instructions. She states that this is a special challenge in the complex world of institutional finance where sophisticated knowledge workers tend to resist the documentation of their procedures.

How can technical writers, in turn, become sophisticated? To set one’s self apart from other technical writers, Lois recommends embracing business analysis as a precursor to documentation. She recommends learning everything you can about process analysis techniques (e.g., Failure Modes and Effects Analysis, Root Cause Analysis), process controls, and process mapping. She advises, "Learn what auditors expect to see in a successfully managed process. If your organization goes through internal audits, ask for a copy of the audit and study it before you start your periodic review of P&P."

All Work and No Play...

Before her trip, Lois wondered what she would do for fun when not at conference sessions. Although she works in a numbers field, Lois remarked that she wasn’t ever interested in gambling. Surprisingly, she found Las Vegas “AMAZING.” She mentioned that thousands of people walk along the strip – day and night – so she felt very secure exploring alone. Some of the other things she mentioned doing were taking a helicopter ride through the Grand Canyon, eating a Champagne picnic lunch overlooking the Colorado River, and seeing white tigers frolicking in a beautiful pool at the Mirage Hotel. She mentioned that lots of the sights were “inexpensive or free” – which amazed me!

Lois hopes to keep in regular contact with the “isolated” financial P&P people she met from networking at the conference and speaking at the round table P&P progression – hopefully they will be isolated no more! Through heavier governmental regulation, we see more jobs in the P&P sector.

While in the land of numbers (Las Vegas), Lois proved that a healthy work/life balance could be found without gambling: that majestic Grand Canyon aerial view, beautiful hotels, and great P&P networking have energized her. With such a great array of things to do and learn, the next conference in Minneapolis may be something for you to consider.

Ginny Silhanek is an assistant editor of Direction. She is based in Burke, Virginia and can be reached by email.