Talking, text messages and emails have their place in business communications, but writing it down brings clearer thinking, eliminates errors and ensures accurate communication, so says Bill Conerly for Forbes in ‘Writing helps business leaders think clearly’.
“Clear thinking becomes clear writing: one can’t exist without the other,” says Bill Zinsser, author of On Writing Well. Any initiative always starts with an idea, but writing it down requires our thoughts to become orderly.
To launch any new project, we must first ask who, where, why, what, how? Who is responsible? What are the roles of the leadership team, managers and workers? If no one is responsible, then the plan will fail.
“When?” is another vital question for any business effort. Everyone needs a deadline. A clear written explanation helps ensure the programme, whatever it is, makes sense. And if it cannot be written clearly, then maybe it needs a re-think.
Writing thoughts down can expose errors and ideas that are unsupported by evidence. And backwards statements or mistakes that are easily made during a spoken presentation, are unlikely to be missed if they are written down. More importantly, writing helps an organisation succeed by clarifying the reasons for business initiatives and communicating those reasons clearly.
To learn more, and to join Business Communication Academy, click here.
Empower yourself and your team