How to steer your story through the approvals quagmire

You have a great idea, until colleagues kill it. These 5 tips will help you produce great content while clinging to your sanity.

You work for the comms team of a large NGO. You have a brilliant idea for a story. It’s a winner, a thoroughbred. You set to work and soon have a punchy, muscular draft ready.

Of course, your colleague who leads the research team in the relevant area needs to give their sign-off. They’re really busy but make time, past midnight, to add 23 comments.  

You grit your teeth and make the changes. To be fair, some of them capture important points. It’s just a shame that they can’t be expressed in words shorter than three syllables.

Colleague one approves it. Phew.

Your beautiful thoroughbred has become a patched up mule with flat feet and a curly pig’s tail

Now they want their boss, colleague two, to give it a “quick once-over”.

Colleague two thinks it's a great idea except that it needs a different headline, intro, argument and conclusion. They underline some of the points that colleague one insisted you add and leave comments that insinuate you’re a naive idiot for including them. 

You grit your teeth and patch something together.

It goes back to colleague one. 12 more changes to implement. Done.

You send it back to colleague two who doesn’t reply for two weeks.

After much chasing and four more changes, you finally get the nod.

Now you just need your boss to take a final look. They conclude that no-one will ever read the thing and they’re right. Your beautiful thoroughbred has become a patched up mule with flat feet and a curly pig’s tail.

You remember the old adage that a camel is a horse designed by committee and think: is there a better way? Yes – to a certain extent.

I’ve worked in communications for over a decade and dealing with the approvals process is notoriously tricky. Publishing on social media is scary. Organisations need to balance expertise with accessibility; grab attention without making gaffes – and then there are all the internal politics and power dynamics that come into play. None of that is straightforward. 

There’s no magic solution, but there are a few tried and tested techniques that can help…

Bring people in at the briefing stage

If someone can kill a piece of content, they can create it too. That means anyone in your organisation who will be signing off on the finished draft should sign off on the brief. While this might seem bureaucratic, it saves time all round if you can agree on essential things like the tone, intended audience, key points and conclusion before anyone starts writing. Sometimes a quick call to gather input from all parties is a good way to get going.

Know how to advocate for your approach

Colleagues who don’t work in communications may need help to understand the context. This 800-word blog post or 60-second video is never going to communicate all the nuances of the topic at hand. What it needs to do is pique people’s interest, tell a story, share an insight, inspire action, raise awareness. You can always link out to more detailed context in the social copy. Stress mutual interests: you want people to know more about their work, so finding a way to draw attention - and hold it - is a win-win. Analytics are your friend here, too: share examples of similar stories and formats that have performed well.

Be clear on the process and timeline

Map out who will be approving the story and when at the outset. Let people know when to expect the draft, and when they need to give feedback in order for you to meet your deadlines. If you’re giving people plenty of notice and you need to play hardball, you can use the approach that if you don’t receive feedback by a set date, you will assume that it’s signed off. If you’re dealing with publishing at high volumes, it can be helpful to set regular reviewing windows so that people can block out time for feedback. At The Content Engine, we’ve developed a platform that assigns approval on each piece of content as a task, with a name and a deadline against it. Whatever tools you use, make sure reviewing is an explicit part of the process.

Embrace the debrief

It’s hard to learn lessons in the heat of the moment. When a team is under pressure, days before an event or launch, you need to drag your way through the approvals quagmire and get the content out there. But when things calm down, it’s worth regrouping, especially if you notice patterns emerging in the approvals process. Try and have a constructive conversation with everyone involved: how might we make this as seamless as possible? How can we work together to produce content we’re all proud of? 

Create something outside of work that’s just for you

It’s hard not to be over-invested in creative work, when every piece of negative feedback can feel like an affront to your very soul. Having a personal outlet where you are entirely in control of what you produce – whether it’s a poem, a polemic or a painting – can help you keep perspective about the inevitable compromises of collaborative work.