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Medical Writing Management Vol Vol.Vol. 18, 20, No. No. 2, 4, 2009, 2011, ISSNISSN 1854-8466.1854-8466. Medical writing management Vol. 20, No. 4, 2011 The Write Stuff EMWA Executive Committee Journal insights The Write Stuff is the offi cial publication of the European Medical Writers Asso- ciation. It is issued 4 times a year and aims to provide EMWA members with relevant, President: informative and interesting articles and news addressing issues relating to the broad Rita Wellens arena of medical writing. We are open to contributions from anyone whose ideas can Wellens Clinical Research Consulting complement these aims, but opinions expressed in individual articles are those of the Rillaar, Belgium authors and are not necessarily those held by EMWA as an association. Articles or ideas should be submitted to the Journal Editor (see below) or another [email protected] member of the Editorial Board. Vice President: Subscriptions Please contact Maney Publishing’s Customer Services & Subscriptions Team at sub- Susan Batti [email protected] for subscription information or view http://www.maney. Premier Research Germany Ltd., co.uk/journals/mew. Darmstadt, Germany, [email protected] Instructions for contributors • The Write Stuff typically publishes articles of 800–2500 words although long- er pieces or those with tables or graphics will be considered. Treasurer: • All articles are subject to editing and revision by the Editorial Board. Any chang- Gillian Pritchard es will be discussed with the author before publication. Sylexis Limited • Submissions should include the full address of the author, including the telephone Dundee, UK and fax numbers and e-mail address. Suitable quotes for side boxes can be indi- [email protected] cated or they can be selected by the Editorial Board. • Material should be submitted by e-mail as an MS Word fi le using Times New Roman (or equivalent), 10 point size, and single spacing. Honorary Secretary: Timelines Sarah Choudhury Month Deadline Medical writer distributed for receipt of articles Letchworth Garden City, UK March 28th November [email protected] June 13th February September 4th June December 3rd September Public Relations Offi cer: Farid Khalfi Advertising rates Guerbet For advertising information please see http://www.maney.co.uk/journals/mew or Roissy, France contact Gaynor Redvers-Mutton at [email protected] [email protected] Behind the press Website Manager: The Editorial Board Shanida Nataraja Associate editor Phil Leventhal Axon Communications London, UK Board members Chris Priestley [email protected] Richard Clark Ursula Schoenberg Margaret Gray Andrea Rossi Education Offi cer: Iain Patten Joselita T. Salita Jo Whelan Textpharm Ltd Columnists Alistair Reeves Oxford, UK Wendy Kingdom [email protected] Alison McIntosh Karin Eichele Dianthus team Gabriele Berghammer Conference Director Greg Morley Sunethra Wimalasundera Freelance forum columnists Raquel Billiones Medical writer Sam Hamilton Hatfi eld, UK Kathryn White [email protected] Anu Alahari Journal Editor Elise Langdon-Neuner Baxter BioScience Vienna, Austria [email protected] EMWA Head Offi ce Chester House, 68 Chestergate, Macclesfi eld, Cheshire, SK11 6DY, UK Disclaimer Tel: +44 (0)1625 664534, Fax: +44 (0)1625 664510 The views and opinions expressed in The Write Stuff are those of the individual [email protected] authors and do not necessarily represent those of the European Medical Writers As- EMWA website: www.emwa.org sociation or its Executive Committee. The Write Stuff is printed on 100% recycled paper. 210 The Journal of the European Medical Writers Association The Write Stuff Vol. 20, No. 4, 2011 TOC Medical writing management Vol 20, No. 4, 2011 Roy G. Leventhal Freelance Section Getting the most from your staff through empowerment 216 Kathryn White A leap of faith—The power of Barrie Dubois life-coaching 251 Fostering collaboration 219 Raquel Billiones Diarmuid De Faoite Out of Hours: Writing an What classic and modern annual family report 253 business literature has to say about motivation—And how you Diana Raffelsbauer can apply these theories to Going freelance: your own life 222 The last of a series of interviews 254 Martin Robinson Making the transition from operations to management 225 Virginia Watson Cover photograph Practical tips on moving up The French conductor and composer through the ranks of management 227 François-Pierre Descamps at the rehearsal of one of the 10 operas and 2 pantomimes from the project An Interview with Julia-Forjanic “1001 night” by the company Klapproth: On starting and SireneOperntheater in August and managing a medical writing agency 229 September 2011 in Vienna, Austria. www.sirene.at Julia Cooper More photos from the opera can been The Development Safety Update Report viewed at http://gallery.me.com/nadja. (DSUR): A new regulatory document meister intended to harmonise periodic safety Cover photograph from Nadja reports for clinical trials 232 Meister ([email protected]) Graphic design on pages 230, 231, Alison Rapley 237, 239, 241, 247, 256 and 257 by Impact of the new European Anders Holmqvist ([email protected]) pharmacovigilance legislation on medical writing 235 Regular features From the Guest Editor’s desk 212 Maria Fernandez-Piera Message from the President 214 Webscout 244 The European Marketing In the bookstores… 245 Authorisation process: Journal watch 246 Responding to regulators’ questions 237 Good writing practice 248 Words, Grammar & Co 258 Ursula Schoenberg For regulatory writers 260 Biomedical publishing shorts 261 Tricky terrain: Medical journalism 262 Healthcare and social media 240 Manuscript writers’ corner 267 The Journal of the European Medical Writers Association 211 Vol. 20, No. 4, 2011 The Write Stuff From the Guest Editor’s desk Management in medical writing by Phil Leventhal Even if you are not a manager, management is something The basic principles of good management have been you need to deal with in one way or another. We all must known for millennia. Mencius, a Chinese philosopher born manage medical writing projects, and sometimes we are in 372 BCE, wrote that “the most important asset of a state called on to manage people in a multifunctional team. or organisation is human capital” [1]. More than that, he All medical writers, including freelancers, should there- believed in the inherent goodness of people. This is a great fore have clear ideas on how to manage people in a way place to start to understand management…even if some that moves projects forward rapidly and effectively. Man- companies or managers do not act on this basis or have not agers in a company setting, of course, have many addi- considered what this implies. tional responsibilities, such as staffi ng, strategic planning, The idea of a special issue on management in medical writ- and fi nancial and resource planning. From experience, we ing came about through discussions that I had with my fa- all probably have a sense of what good management is, ther, Roy Leventhal. After over 50 years of experience as an but this special issue of The Write Stuff takes some of the employee and manager in different companies, he has use- guesswork and intuition out of what this entails. ful insight about what makes for good management. In his article, he advocates empowering employees by creating a bottom-up problem-solving system (page 216). This kind of empowerment gets the most out of employee expertise, maintains their motivation, and adds value to the company. Diarmuid De Faoite (page 222) adds to this theme of mo- tivation. In his article, he explains how ideas of motivation have evolved since the early 20th century from considering employees as machines motivated exclusively by a desire for high wages to the more modern view that a desire for self-fulfi lment drives motivation. Collaboration is a management word that we hear a lot when working on team projects. Barrie Dubois, an organi- sation specialist in the Silicon Valley area of California, explains what collaboration really means and how to foster it (page 219). She explains that sustainable collaboration implies not acquiescence but confl ict, and she provides tools for creating an environment where these confl icts can be quickly resolved. Two articles in this issue discuss what a medical writer needs to know to become a manager. Martin Robinson, Principal Director at the International Academy of Clinical Research (page 225) writes that being a good writer does not imply that you will be a good manager. Becoming a good manager requires getting out of your ‘comfort zone’ and learning a completely new set of project and people management skills. Virginia Watson, Company Director of Dulcamara Ltd., discusses what she learned from many years as a manager in multinational corporations (page 227). Like Martin Robinson, she emphasises the need to learn new skills, and she breaks these down into three Painting of Mencius, a Chinese philosopher born in 372 BCE. After Confucius, he was probably the second-most important philosopher in Chinese history. He areas: operations, personnel and strategic. believed in the inherent goodness of people and that “the most important asset of a state or organisation is human capital” [1]. To learn about managing a medical writing agency, The Source: http://www.wikipedia.org Write Stuff interviewed Julia Forjanic-Klapproth, Senior 212 The Journal of the European Medical Writers Association The Write Stuff Vol. 20, No. 4, 2011 From the Guest Editor’s desk Partner and CEO of Trilogy Writing & Consulting and After reading these articles, I came to the same conclusion former president of EMWA (page 229). Julia’s advice and as Mencius: people are a company’s greatest asset. Good experiences are of great value not only to EMWA mem- management means trusting people and giving them the bers wanting to start their own companies but also to med- opportunity and encouragement to contribute. This issue ical writing agencies and departments wanting to make of The Write Stuff should help medical writers make sev- improvements in their management style.
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