Michael's Workbench

I had an interesting conversation at work recently about emails, specifically long emails. Some thoughts on how to make those emails more effective are below.

Short version:

• What do you want to achieve?
• What is the current situation? (facts)
• Write your reasoning based on these facts: why what you want to achieve follows as the logical conclusion from the facts?
• Write your request: what actions do you need from your audience to get from current situation to what you want to achieve?
• Copy the ask to start of the message (BLUF)
• Proofread and send

Slightly longer version:

The shortest path to one’s heart is through the ribcage

Anonymous

• The first question I ask when writing anything is: what do I want as a result? Am I writing to inform, to convince, to prompt action – what?
• The second question: what is the shortest path I can take to get the desired result? 

 (this is from a guy who is known to ask for status updates by sending emails with a single question mark for content)

Now, this “shortest path” takes some looking into. There is often a difference between what is the shortest path for me to convince myself that I have communicated something, and the shortest path to actually get the result I want.

Let’s start with an extreme example: I write a beautiful logical compelling message with rock-solid arguments … in Klingon. How likely am I to get an action out of my audience (assuming they are not Comic Con attendees)? If my audience does not act on my request, whose fault is it – theirs or mine? Shifting to a more realistic scenario, the same conclusion would still hold: if I am communicating in the way convenient to me, rather than in the way convenient to my audience, their inaction is my problem.

Which leads us to my absolute favorite criteria of communication effectiveness:

Communication is what the listener does

Mark Horstman

Did my audience act, and through that action help achieve desired result? If yes, the communication was effective regardless of its beauty, size, or any other attributes. If no, the communication failed and any work spent on it was a waste of time.

So, what gets the audience to do something? Without claiming that this would work for any audience, here is what has worked for me with most audiences:

1. Get to the point fast

BLUF (bottom line up-front) is a great principle. Start with telling your audience what you want them to do. Then provide argumentation why they should do it. I see a lot of very long-winded emails where I have to read through 4 pages of text just to figure out what it is someone wants from me.

Guess what? I follow GTD, and my workflow for getting through the inbox is very simple:

• I spend two minutes per message (unless it’s from my boss). 
• If I can figure out what you’re asking me to do in one minute, and the action takes another minute or so, it will get done immediately. 
• If it takes more than a minute, I will spend a minute to plan next action and schedule it. 
• If it’s a 4-page message with the actual request hidden somewhere in the back, the middle, or worse, spread all through the message, then it’s going to the back of my work queue. I can’t afford the time to sort though it usually until the end of the day, sometimes until the next day. 

If you are giving me 4 pages of information to read, and I have no idea what you’re asking me to do after reading the first paragraph, I will have to read your message twice: first time to figure out what you are asking and second time – to actually read the information in the context of what’s being asked. And I know that I’m not unique that way. So, let’s not waste people’s time. Tell people what you are asking them to do, then give them the information, reasoning, etc., so they can understand the context and the reasoning for the ask. Yes, this is not how you come up with the ask: you work through the facts and reasoning first, and then decide what you need from others. It’s ok to make a draft in that sequence. And it’s not ok to force your audience to repeat exact same path without up-front knowledge of where you’re going.

2. Follow with facts

What are the facts? Again and again and again – what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what “the stars foretell,” avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable “verdict of history” – what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your single clue. Get the facts!

Robert Heinlein

The greatest sin in providing the facts is to discard those of them that don’t support your conclusions. DO NOT DO THIS! The only thing such behaviour demonstrates is that you are not confident in your recommendation, in which case it’s even more important for others to have all relevant facts.

3. Provide your reasoning and conclusions

We do not pile up detail. Data dumps are not the way to show our expertise

Analytic Thinking and Presentation for Intelligence Producers. CIA Analysis Training Handbook

Make it clear where the facts end and where your conclusions start. Your reasoning, conclusions and recommendations are the most valuable part of your message, do not skimp on this part of your message. Just don’t limit your message to only conclusions, omitting the facts that led you to them.

4. Write your call to action (Or informational summary if your message was to inform/convince rather than to cause action)

Be clear and concise. And remember, any action that does not answer the question “Who does What by When?” is not really an action, but a missed opportunity to create one.

5. Move your call to action / summary up-front

6. Proofread and send

“There Are Two Typos Of People In This World: Those Who Can Edit And Those Who Can’t”

Jarod Kintz

Good luck writing! (not that luck has anything to do with it)