People produce content daily with no education in what they produce and they are doing it well. In my experience in working with all content producers (visual or written) their demands are changing. Anybody can write even if they are not storytellers’ case in point myself. I will not call myself a strong writer even though all I did was write papers over and over again for my first degree so I have a lot of practice. I also would not call myself a photographer as I do not have a great camera or standard photo editing software. I understand photography and video editing to make things presentable and even professional. I have seen talented writers, photographers, and videographers still not be able to expand their roles but individuals should be able to do more with the technology today. Phones now take high-quality photos that you can edit right on your phone. I know professional photographers will argue there are limitations, but these specialists are being disrupted as self-taught individuals enter their field.
Writers now are everywhere- I know I can tell a story and the impact it will have. Working with award-winning writers I have seen the meticulous nature of crafting what I would call a simple sentence. Not long ago I collaborated with some writers in creating some specific business content. Even though there was a lot of talent in the room the hundred or so words created took hours with high-level individuals in the room. The business outcome could have been rapid but there was an over-analysis of each sentence to make sure of readability, tone and impact. The content created was excellent but I was very dissatisfied with the process and the outcome should have been obtained earlier. My view is from my process improvement and business analysis background. I respect the deep analysis of the words but I would question analyzing the tones and impact of each sentence but to me, it always made more sense to review the tone and impact of the whole document after it is complete. I remember the pain as in this case I was not the lead so I could not facilitate speed but was a contributor to the content- I tried to push at times for speed but realized this was a culture issue and how things had been done for years. I took away the work and the outcome the executive wanted and decided to use software for tone, readability and the focus on using simple language. I stumbled upon all sorts of free software outside of the leader Grammarly to help with the readability and tone which included Hemmingway, and Editsaurus, unfortunately, we spent another three sessions crafting these words and my analytical self-took each person’s internal rate and factored that these hundred words cost us over $6,500 for an internal document that should have been quick. Unfortunately, I could not convince the individuals in that room to try to experiment with these editing applications, most of them I couldn’t convince to turn on their spellcheck. My opinion here in working with professional and talented storytellers is they have a great understanding of how to engage audiences the medium to use, the call to action and sometimes the development of content. There is still a large role for these professionals in facilitating and optimizing the voice of the customer/ client but they always need to have the ROI and business outcome in mind. Even though written communication can be an art often it shouldn’t be, sometimes it needs to be good enough.
I remember somebody coming to my desk at work recently and asking which photographer I used to get my baby son’s pictures taken. I explained to them I took the picture on my phone and edited it, they asked where I edited it and I told them on my phone as well. They were very surprised and that’s when I realized I was a fauxtographer. I was very comfortable in editing photos in Adobe Photoshop but realize that the photos I needed to edit this was not worth that investment. Instead, I downloaded GIMP and took a $5.99 Udemy course and went on my way. Working with various photographers and being one of the leaders in a department I often heard criticisms of photoshoots. The issue has most often been the photographers going in and imposing their creative vision on the partner. Even though the partner who understands the customer and the target markets vision. Commonly, there would be 500 pictures in a shoot and 5 or so were utilized and often if the photographer listened to the voice of the customer and their partner they needed 10 pictures with specific standards. I also believe that photographers and videographers need to adapt to do both as all digital media is converging and moreover some design. I have seen some individuals that become valuable as they offer these services and can do all three. Digital media is converging and the truth is individuals are generating motion graphics, pictures and photos at a high quality. These traditional roles might not disappear but the skills needed may change to a more customer and user-centric skillset- the need to support end-users with self-help tools and a positive personalized experience will be important in keeping digital media roles from extinction.
A CPA’s role is also changing. I have worked in situations where journal entries and other financial processes being completed are not providing value or can be automated with software. This is no different than the above examples but many areas are changing with technology and becoming automated or assisted so anybody can do it themselves. I could say the same to accountants’ roles will turn more into analysis understanding the numbers and performing financial planning and analysis as well as providing users insights from interpreting financial data. I will discuss this more in a future post more on the specifics financial professionals will need to shift to with automation increasing.
Many roles are changing with technology affecting how we work. This will continue to evolve not just for the jobs mentioned. Retraining not skills but mindsets will become essential and embracing change will help individuals excel in the future. Are you ready and open for your job to change?
I used the following apps to check my readability and let’s just say it can be improved but I am not a writer:
https://editsaurus.tylerwalters.com/
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