Generate Clarity by Establishing a Writing Practice.
Links may contain an affiliate referral, where a commission could be earned for purchases made. All opinions in this article are my own and do not represent those of past, current, or future employers.
Have you ever shared a message with your team or stakeholders, but it did not resonate, so you had to reframe your message multiple times? Establishing a practice of writing allows you to refine your ideas and prepares your message to arrive clearer and more succinct to your audience. As a leader this will help you be better prepared and be more concise in your message.
A Writing Practice:
As a practice, writing should be implemented as a routine and as a tool. A routine builds repetition, ability, and efficiency in your writing. Routine writing can focus on preparation, reflection, or learning. For preparation, you may routinely write about the upcoming workweek or workday, as a process to collect your ideas and what you want to accomplish. For reflection, you may look back and journal on what has happened, how you feel, or ideas on what could have been different. For learning, you may write for education, blogging, or for yourself to synthesize messages you have consumed into your own ideas and opinions.
Writing as a tool can be used as circumstances arise where you need to hone your thoughts. These scenarios are typically ad hoc and can include responding to an email or direct message, preparing a team or organization message, or preparing an ask. As a tool, don’t create a script to read line by line, but to capture your initial thoughts, then to refine those thoughts. Also, use a proportional amount of time for the reason why you are using writing as a tool. For example, if you have a direct message or text to send, if it is concerning a delicate matter, then devote some time to reflecting and refining your message, while if the topic is more casual then take a quicker approach. The following sections describe some methods you can use in your writing practice.
Monotask your Writing:
Remove your distractions and solely focus on just writing, to enter a flow-state where you can produce more ideas and achieve a higher quality (Wine, 2021, pp. 193-210). Set a timer, enable the Do Not Disturb mode on devices, minimize any other apps or windows in use if writing on a device, and clear your workspace of any potential distractions. Start with small increments of time where you write, then increase the allotted time as you go.
Tell a Story:
Kurnoff and Lazarus recommend storytelling in a why, what, and how framework to help connect your audience to your message. Put the why first, and make sure you identify who is involved, define a setting, and include a conflict. Follow the why with the what, which is the high-level concept, or big idea, you are trying to communicate. Then, describe the how with the specifics used to resolve the conflict identified in the why. Finally, recap the story with your what (2021, pp. 48-59). For example, in this article I have followed this pattern, setting a up the why with my opening question, the what with the recommendation to establish a writing practice, then describing how to perform a writing practice, and recapping my recommendation at the end. Use this framework to guide how you start your writing, and in your review or reflection to ensure you are connecting the why, what, and how.
Write, Reflect, and Remove:
Hawk describes the steps of writing your message as: write your initial draft, reflect on the purpose, and remove any unnecessary content. First, by writing you allow your creative energy to flow, but this often produces excess. Next, by reflecting on the purpose of your message, you remind yourself with what you are trying to achieve. Finally, by removing the unnecessary content, even though it may be relevant or added value, these unnecessary parts muddy the message you are trying to convey (2020, pp. 134-135). Consider this as a mantra for your all your messages from small to large.
Make it a Habit:
Clear proposes a four-step method for establishing habits: cue, craving, response, and reward (2018, pp. 47-55). First, establishing your writing cue for a specific time and place (2018, pp. 69-72). Second, create a motivation ritual to help you crave the completion of your writing. For example, put on your headphones when you start writing and wait until playing the music until you have completed writing (2018, pp. 132-133). Make your response to the habit of writing easy, by starting with small goals and minimizing friction which may prevent or distract you from writing (2018, pp. 156-163). Finally, reward the completion of your writing habit with an immediate reward (2018, pp. 190-191). From the earlier example, you would reward yourself with some of your favorite music.
Challenge:
If you do not already have a writing practice, pick one routine practice, and give it a try over the next month. If you do, consider an additional step to adopt over the next month. In a month, reflect to see if you have improved your preparedness and clarity of message. Ask your team or stakeholders to see if they have detected any improvements over the month as well. If you notice an improvement, then continue to build upon the routine and leverage writing as a tool to clarify your message and share the concept of a writing practice with others.
References:
Clear, J. (2018). Atomic Habits: an Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones. Avery.
Wine, T. (2021). The Twelve Monotasks: to do Everything Better. Little, Brown Spark.
Links may contain an affiliate referral, where a commission could be earned for purchases made. All opinions in this article are my own and do not represent those of past, current, or future employers.
