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No I agree that’s a problem. I would tell the group to send you feedback via email so you can implement. They shouldn’t go in and change your work without talking to you. I have had other strategy ppl do this who were more senior. Regardless, you don’t learn when you can’t do it yourself and you lose ownership. Best of luck!
Yeah when you share your slides, indicate whether or not others can feel free to edit as necessary. If you’re cool with it, say that. If not, say “let me know of any changes or feedback you may have so I can make edits”. On a side note - I have run into situations where others simply (and usually unnecessarily) change wording for the sake of “having their hand in the work”. Though that behavior is totally frustrating, I usually shrug it off and roll my eyes.
I’ve had this happen and had to communicate with an account manager why it was frustrating. They were trying to own the deck and went through and deleted some slides I spent a while formatting (even if I hadn’t it would still be rude, but at least stick them in an appendix!). I wasn’t happy about it and it was uncomfortable but I shared that feedback, and now they know to check with me first or suggest updates rather than make them without me. But I’ve also worked in different situations where accounts or strategy own a deck/presentation.
If you prefer a direct communication style, just bring it up as process or ways to working to the team and say that every word was thoughtfully written and meant to integrate the narrative and flow of the presentation and that you would like to own the language on slides x . If you're less direct and perhaps even enjoy some passive aggression, I've seen people literally pdf their slides so nobody can make edits or call out in client meetings out loud 'Oh, someone seems to have changed the language here! What it was meant to originally say was... ' 🌝 you probably don't want to do this too often.
I don’t mind when people edit my work, unless I’m presenting it and didn’t get it back in time to review changes. I also will take a slide deck and keep the main point alive but completely rework it if I know how the client or receiving side likes things narrated. I think editing each other’s work is totally standard and can make the work better for the client (if you trust your team and edits are happening at the right levels). Rarely does my team try to tackle that over a meeting either, the meeting is for an overview and pass off, and editing is done after team members process, read on their own, etc. - but I can also understand that it might not feel great when you think it’s worded exactly as it should be to best illustrate the points or if credit isn’t being given properly.
I should clarify - We also would meet afterwards to discuss edits made and why (if lots of edits done) or minimally send back the edits with comments (because the hope is that the team learns the clients internal lingo and how they like things as well, so that less edits are needed moving forward). And I should also clarify, this was for strategic/tier 1 clients (clients the agency really cared to keep so people could keep their jobs lol, the ones that pay a lot - in which case, I would never ship something out the door without this type of editing process). I’m out of agency life now (back to in-house advertising), but I also still don’t care if people edit my work if they understand the receiving end better than me. If my CMO edits my slide deck I put together for the admin team, I don’t care, as long as he sends it back so I can understand and try to adapt/learn for next time. I have no expectations of those edits or feedback to be real-time when I’m showing him though, that feels unrealistic. I think of it this way.. he may not know paid media like I do, but he certainly does know the admin team better than I do and how they’ll receive it/what language resonates with them. To me.. this is how work should be done, the “right fit” work is the one that should be served at the table, even if it wasn’t my final draft that made it there.
Channel your Creative Director if you rewrote a script before the presentation and let’em have it.
Def a line being crossed there. I assume it’s purely because they don’t understand the slide so they’re trying to convey it in a way that makes sense to them, assuming the audience will consume it better.
I’ve learned throughout my career that most people just have no idea what they’re doing.