Thoughtful Professional Writing#
The hard part about writing is thinking.
When we speak with each other, our language just flows as our thoughts come. It’s easy and doesn’t require much forethought. Lips move at the speed of thought. While easy, this also means that we’re not forced to organize our thoughts ahead of time, they just flow. This might be hard on our listener who now has to organize our thoughts as they listen to us talk.
Writing, especially writing in a constrained space, forces us to think more about the concepts we want to communicate, how best to organize them, and how to distill them into the simplest possible form. This is hard, but it makes it easier on our reader, who is now presented with a more organized sequence of thoughts.
Writing at Work#
At work we have a culture of written communication. Almost all group meetings are preceded with a Google Doc, and many 1-1 meetings have notes sent ahead of time. Personally I find this very useful:
It gives me space to think about the topic ahead of time
I like to think before making decisions, and I think much better outside of a time-pressured meeting.
Google Doc comments enable concurrent questioning and discussion
It’s much easier to collect and address a high volume of comments and questions if they can happen at the same time. We’re all able to read and comment on a doc simultaneously, while we can’t all share the speaking floor simultaneously. This handles the easier / simpler questions.
It makes it easy to broadcast context and decisions to others
Often people not in the meeting are curious about the decision made and the context and arguments that led to that decision. It’s much easier to share that context to others if most of it is written down.
But most of all, the document shared ahead of time organizes the discussion. A good document collects relevant context that everyone should know. It synthesizes the core tensions involved. It lays out a few of the best options we could take. It also includes some opinions and recommendations, and an analysis on why those recommendations might be good. This organization quickly puts everyone in a good frame of mind, so that they can meaningfully contribute to effective decision-making.
Organized Thoughts#
Of course it’s not writing that’s important here. It’s how effectively we’re able to serve up context and organize thoughts for our colleagues.
There are other appraoches to this that can be just as effective, like a well-crafted slide deck. There are also written appraoches that can be ineffective, like a very long and unorganized document that people are expected to slog thorugh.
For me, the value is in the following:
Concisely define the problem to be solved
Remind the readers of relevant context
Lay out some possible options
All in about a page
Ahead of time so people have time to reflect
This is hard. It takes time and mental effort. It’s also something that I really appreciate when my colleagues take on that burden.
Sports Analogy#
In Ultimate Frisbee there are several possible throws to move the disk up the field. They differ in how easy they are to get past the defender guarding the thrower, and how easy they are to catch:
Forehand/backhand throws are typical. They’re difficult to get past the defender guarding the thrower, but if the thrower manages it then they’re pretty easy to catch.
Hammer throws are atypical. They’re an overhand throw sent above the defender (and so easy to get past) but they fly upside down and are more difficult to catch.
Good throwers typically restrict themselves to forehands and backhands. They take on the burden of beating the defense and so make their throws easy for their teammates to catch. More novice throwers often get flummoxed by their defender, and as the shot-clock winds down often resort to throwing hammers. This shifts the burden of the pass completion from the thrower to the receiever.
We expect more from the thrower because they have ten seconds (Ultimate’s shot-clock) to find a good passing opportunity, while receivers have only one chance to make a catch.
Final Thoughts#
In any communication or decision there’s a burden to organize thoughts. This burden will be either on the speaker’s side or on the listener’s side. Often, it’s the speaker who has more context of the situation. In this case it’s considerate and often more efficient for the speaker to take on the burden of organizing their thoughts, rather than depend on the listeners.
I find that the best way to do this is through a concisely written document. I find that this is hard and takes time, but most of that time is time spent thinking which should be done anyway.