Email

  1. Make the subject relevant, don’t reply to a lunch invite mail with critical business info - one topic per thread.
  2. Keep it short and to the point - long emails should be in a document of some sort.
  3. Don’t hide the actions in the middle - use @ to make them explicit and make them clearly visible.
  4. To means you need me to read it and/or do something. CC means you don’t need me to do anything, and I can read it when it suits me. Don’t use CC if you need people to do things.
  5. Don’t email angry! If an exchange is getting heated then talk in real time. Ideally in person, if not on video and as a last resort on the phone. Don’t respond with emotion.
  6. Don’t write anything that you wouldn’t want someone to read. You don’t know where threads will be forwarded to.
  7. Following on from 6 - be smart about forwarding emails. Check what is further down the thread.
  8. what else could we do to make our email use more efficient?
  9. Check who you are replying to, Reply all could send your message to a much wider audience than you intended.
  10. Review your email content before pressing the send button. very simple but useful.

Communication Plan

Here is a very simple but EXTREMELY POWERFUL communication plan structure:

  1. We are planing to do …
  2. We are doing …
  3. We completed …

Repeating the same message before, in progress and after is always helpful when you want to earn attentions from other parts of the business.

Presentation & Story-telling

Reference