How to Manage Document Version Control During Communications Campaigns

You've spent all this time working to get your communications right--whether you're the client, the manager, or the communications officer--and suddenly you see an 'older' version when the director sends out his/her message or it shows up on the corporate website. Then you swear out loud and realize that the reason you're seeing one of the changes from several versions ago is because someone made a boo-boo and pulled up the wrong non-final version.

This is going to happen.

In Communications work, we see a lot of versions of numerous documents via email, especially, causing challenges for version control. For these very situations, I purposefully have the following file naming convention so people know they have the latest version.

I "time-stamp" them. That means when I did my 'save-as', I captured the date and time in the document's file name. I do it ever time. Always. And it has consistently saved my bacon. Also, by doing it this way, the versions line up very nicely in Windows Explorer!

Here's my format + an example:

YYYY MM-Month DD 00h00 Filename.doc

2012 06-Jun 07 10h06 Memo to All Employees.doc

Legend:

YYYY = Year, i.e. 2011, 2012

MM = digits to identify month, i.e. 01 for January, 02 for February, etc….

Month = the month listed as a word, i.e. Jan for January, Feb for February

DD = digits to identify date, i.e. 07 is the 7th day of the month

00h00 is the time listed using the 24-hour clock, so 09h30 is 9:30am and 21h30 is 9:30pm

Filename = a name that describes what's in your document, i.e. From Directors to All Employees.

Comments

What did I say yesterday?

Look at what messages have gone out before communicating new ones. A huge mistake managers often make is to communicate new messages without reviewing what they've already said on the subject in the past, hoping no one will notice. Imagine how far a politician would get using that approach. Unfortunately, we can imagine it all too well. The mistake is not in forgetting what you've said before; with all the messages coming from the CEO, the website, from various marketing and customer service campaigns, it's no wonder we cannot remember what we said yesterday. However, it is our job to either know or find out exactly how we characterize our messages and what we share, even long after we've shared it. For example, if you tell your team to focus on continuous improvement and then a week later, in a weak moment, yell at someone for taking too much time to reevaluate a process, you'll lose trust and credibility--probably two of the most important badges

Ah, yes... The "C" Word

In the Communications field, the "C" word can mean numerous things. In Internal or Employee Communications, we often refer to big "C" and little "c" communications. Big "C" Communications tends to include official communications tactics and products that get everyone's attention in an organization: posters, banners, advertising, website splash pages, e-newsletters, town halls and major 'memos', to name a few. Little "c" communications tends to be the internal, day-to-day business communications in a workplace about doing the work itself such messages about new procedures, processes, policies and plans, also internal emails, operational and tactical messages. The "C" word that is missing from this discussion is Culture. These are the ideas and messages that Culture communicates: How people behave in their workplace. What the culture tolerates as appropriate or inappropriate behaviour. For example, what goes

Be interested in your employees.

Walk around the office and chat one-on-one with people, ask them about themselves, their day-to-day work, their kids, how their weekend was. If you make time to also walk around your corporate office and talk to people individually, they remember that and will cut you a little slack when you’ve got to rush out the door the next time. It also allows you to get to know your people well, what makes them tick and what makes them successful or what makes them do their best. Knowing your people and having a relationship or personal connection with them, however small, allows your organization to want to perform better. Those employees become a lot more willing to go above and beyond the call of duty for you. Just make sure you are consistent. You don't want to be that manager who tries something once or twice and then gets too busy to keep it up.

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