The Good, the Bad and the Merciless
When I need a quick title, this one never fails: “The Good, the Bad and the [fill in the blank]”.
This week started gently. I liked that. I’d forgotten what its like to have a quiet couple of days.
Then it got busy. I like busy too but I’m still feeling a bit like I’m spread too thin. I probably need to get some support with the merciless part of this week…
The Good: announcing Shared Digital Guides to the world
I love announcing a new digital thing to the world. The relaunch of Service Recipes as Shared Digital Guides has felt like a new thing.
We’ve not actually made a fanfare of it. Its been like a silent relaunch but we are not actively sharing site content and seeking new content. Last time we did this was September 2022.
The truth is that when you launch a digital thing its always going to be less important to the world than it is to you. But I’m still proud of the work the team has done on it — that’s Kat Quatermass, Jonny Kates, Rachel Harding and me.
The Bad: giving difficult feedback
I’m Editor at Catalyst Resources. We publish 4 resource articles a month. About 80% of that content is commissioned from writers and subject matter experts across the sector. Sometimes supporting them is easy and other times it a challenge.
I’m learning a lot about how to give feedback. What’s the balance between enough detail and general feedback? I want our writers to get something out of the experience — some benefit more from input than others. Some need more input than others.
And sometimes I get stuck with how to help someone improve an article, without restructuring it for them, because its quality isn’t yet there and its still not hitting near enough to the brief. I’ve done that this week, and explained why I think it isn’t working for other reasons too. Alongside this I’ve offered them support to improve it and the option to stop writing if they wish. I hope we can work to improve it.
The Merciless: marketing a call for new Guides
Shared Digital Guides relies on non-profit organisations to fuel it. The fuel is examples of how they use digital tools to do things. The challenge is finding organisations who have something to share. That’s the merciless part as I think its going to take a lot of repetitive work. It involves:
- communicating what Guides are
- helping people see that how they use digital tools could be a Guide for others
- motivating them to take action by contacting us
- sending lots of emails, tweaked for different contexts about the 3 points above.
I feel like I’m selling something bad, even though all Shared Digital Guides is asking is for people to help each other. Its the challenge of asking for people’s time and attention that I don’t like. I might need some help with this. I think I will ask our Initiative Leads circle for this on Monday.
See you next week! 🐶
