The Value of Different Perspectives
Each week at Morrison, we have a marketing meeting with our team of consultants. We discuss current projects, prospective clients, business opportunities and general marketing efforts.
One of the interesting things that has come from those meetings is the realization at just how different all of our perspectives are. Even though we don’t all see eye to eye on every subject, it’s apparent that the multiple perspectives create a stronger business in every respect.
When a client engages us to write a competitive federal or state grant for them, there is a grant writer (or project manager) who communicates regularly with the client, pulls together all of the information and writes the grant proposal. In addition, as a team, we act as a resource for one another. Not everyone can be an expert in every area, so we rely on a team effort and our various experience and different perspectives to create the best possible result. Then comes the refining process – another experienced grant writer will review the entire grant without all of the communication and background from the client.
Why would we do this?
It’s all about PERSPECTIVE. When the Grant Agency’s reviewer or committee reads the proposal for the first time, they will not have any background on the company, other than what is in the proposal. So, it’s important to have someone who has not been involved in the day to day compilation of grant information to review and critique the proposal from a Grant Agency reviewer’s perspective.
It’s an interesting process…and having your work “refined” to death isn’t the most fun process, however, there is zero doubt that this part of the process is what helps to create a high success rate in grant writing. At Morrison, our current grant success rate is around 83%, when most programs have a 20% success rate. Why? Because of the refining process that brings in an outside PERSPECTIVE.
How can you benefit from this process?
When you’re working on a project that requires text or information laid out for the benefit of another party, although it may be an ego-bruiser, take the time to have one to two other people who are not involved in the project, review the data to make sure that 1) it is clear to someone without the background; 2) the information flows in a logical way; and 3) there are no obvious typos or grammatical errors. How many sets of eyes do you suppose this blog post has enjoyed the benefit of seeing?
I guarantee that being open to an outside perspective will provide excellent insight and help your project become stronger as a result.