Whatever happened to the art of message composition?
In times past, people communicated by letters written on paper, and there were excellent incentives for applying optimal composition. People of good upbringing learned how to write a proper letter as part of their general “liberal arts” education, and children got the basics in school when writing essays and assignments. All aspects of a good letter, from polite salutation to clarity of content, were taught – and scrutinized by both senders and recipients. Writing a poorly crafted letter was shameful and derided; and so when people reached the workplace they knew how to compose professional letters, and they did.
Today, by contrast, we have multiple electronic channels – notably email, SMS and social media – that cost nothing and expect nothing. What’s more, some of then – SMS and Twitter, for sure – encourage a degree of brevity that excuses poor language skills as a matter of course. Email, the successor of the written letter, suffers from spillover from these trends – and from the lack of time caused by information overload. Nobody has the time to craft good messages and many wouldn’t know how if they did. I see the outcomes when I survey employees about their problems with email overload; I’m sure you can see them too…
Should you even care about professional email composition?
Some would say, so what? Who needs to bother with composition in this age of instant messaging and 140 character tweets?
Well, I believe you should definitely care, and teach your employees professional email composition skills. Here’s why:
- Well-crafted messages are easier to process fast – a key factor in today’s overloaded environment.
- Poor composition leads to poor communications. The outcomes can range from misunderstood messages to offending coworkers, and always cause a flurry of additional messages, which only increases the overload.
- Between growing up with TXTese and copying school essays from Internet sources, the younger generation entering the workforce lacks experience with the use of written communications in a manner suited to optimizing business interaction
- Today’s multi-generational workplace requires effective communications between Gen Y, Gen X and Baby Boomers. If we only had the Millennials around, one can conjecture that they’d manage to communicate in the Twitter or SMS style; but they need to be understood by the older cohorts, which calls for common ground where message styling is concerned.
- Even if new hires knew how to write a good essay, writing in a given company, with its specific business specialization and its local cultural quirks, is a very different thing. Teaching writing skills in the company’s specific context will align everyone on the same page, enabling better interaction across the organization.
- Lastly, writing messages with care and attention to detail is likely to encourage more reflection about the subject matter, getting one’s thoughts in order – which brings value in itself.
How you can teach email composition effectively
Given all this, it’s surprising that more employers don’t train their employees in good writing skills. Sure, this is more of a “literature” than a ”technology” thing, but the stakes are high; training employees in how to write a legible message can have a significant business impact in the long run.
So how can this be achieved? Here are some ways you can try in your organization:
- The good old way – set up a training program of business writing skills, and require all employees to take it. There are companies that specialize in providing such training, and you can buy courses specific to email skills (although while you’re at it you may do well to throw in effective PowerPoint skills as well!) Note that frontal classes really work best in such matters, so use Web based training to complement, not to replace them.
- Customize the classes to your business, its culture, and its needs – what acronyms are in use, what “CC” practices are appropriate, what salutations are proper in each culture your company operates in, etc. Remember: a message that is acceptable in one geography may come across as rude or insulting in another!
- Be sure to put in place a system that will give this training to all new hires, as part of their New Hire program – say, within 6 months of coming on board (not in the first week of intense training – they’re too overwhelmed at that stage).
- Instill expectations that email needs to be written properly. This is a matter for management role modeling and feedback, which you need to legitimize across the organization. Make it acceptable to respond to a rambling or unclear email with a response pointing out the mistakes and suggesting improvement.
- By all means distribute reference cards with tips and best practices – but don’t expect them to work all by themselves. People need training and management role modeling for this behavior change.
If you want to discuss ideas in this space, you know who to call!…
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