Google Workspace has had a brilliant feature for a smooth document flow within your company for a while now, namely Approvals in Google Docs. What is brand new, however, is this super flexible update: lightweight alignment approvals. Let's recap!
Classic approval: locking things down
For official documents (think contracts or HR policies), the standard Approval function in Google Docs is a dream. With the provided buttons, you send an official request to your managers or team members, with or without a deadline. Very important: the document is automatically locked as soon as the flow is started. (A bit like eSignature, but different.)
No one can simply make changes while the review is ongoing. Does someone approve it? Green checkmark. Does someone reject it? Then you have to go back to the drawing board. As soon as a change is made, all previous approvals are reset. Safe, airtight, but sometimes a bit too rigid for projects that are very much in motion and where only minor adjustments are still being made.
Working smoother: the intermediate function
Sometimes you're working on a creative presentation where the details change hourly. You want your colleagues to give their in-principle approval on the broad outlines, but you don't want the document to be locked immediately.
When starting an approval, you will now see a simple checkbox: "Require all approvers to view the same content".
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If you uncheck this you activate lightweight mode.
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Team members can already register their approval, while the rest of the team can simply continue working and editing the document. The ongoing approvals are not reset with every change!
It keeps things moving and prevents projects from being unnecessarily stalled. Should an edit genuinely mess things up later, an approver can easily manually reset their approval status to 'pending', ensuring the basic idea of approval is not abandoned. The perfect Belgian compromise.
Great addition, thanks Google!
