110. Write It Well: How to Craft an Email to Capture Busy Readers

Summary

In the podcast 'Think Fast, Talk Smart,' Matt Abrahams interviews Todd Rogers, author of 'Writing for Busy Readers.' They discuss strategies for effective writing in a world of busy readers who often skim content. Rogers emphasizes the importance of structure, clarity, and brevity, advocating for a reader-focused approach that prioritizes ease of navigation and understanding. The conversation covers the six principles from Rogers' book, including designing for navigation, the 'less is more' concept, and making reading easy with simple language. They also touch on the role of context, such as status and norms, in shaping written communication.

Takeaways

• 📝 **Effective Writing Saves Time**: Writing clearly and effectively makes it easier for busy readers, saving them time and being considerate of their limited attention.
• 👥 **Focus on the Reader**: Effective writing is reader-focused, considering how readers actually engage with text, often by skimming rather than reading every word.
• 🧭 **Structure is Key**: Adding headings and structure helps readers navigate content quickly, making it easier to find key information.
• 📉 **Less is More**: Concise writing that omits unnecessary details is more likely to be read and understood, even if it seems incoherent without full context.
• 🔤 **Simplify Language**: Using short, common words and simple grammar makes reading easier and more accessible to a broader audience.
• 👀 **Eye-Tracking Research**: Understanding how people's eyes move when they read can inform writing practices to make text more scannable.
• 📈 **Practical Writing**: The principles discussed are particularly relevant to practical writing like emails, texts, and reports, rather than creative or literary works.
• 🤔 **Engagement Matters**: Writers should consider how to capture and maintain a reader's attention, using strategies from behavioral science where appropriate.
• 😅 **Emojis and Emoticons**: While emojis can be engaging, their use can be risky due to varying interpretations across different audiences and generations.
• 🏢 **Norms and Status in Writing**: The context of an organization and the status of the writer can influence the style and tone of writing, with higher status often correlating with brevity.

Q & A

What is the main focus of Todd Rogers' book 'Writing for Busy Readers'?

The book focuses on how to write effectively for readers who are often busy and skimming through content, emphasizing clarity and ease of understanding.

According to Todd Rogers, why is it important to write in a way that reflects how people actually read?

Writing in a way that reflects how people actually read ensures that the message is more likely to be understood and engaged with, as it accommodates the reality that many people skim rather than read thoroughly.

What does Todd Rogers mean by 'better living through effective writing'?

He means that by making writing easier for readers, it saves them time and is kinder, which in turn improves everyone's lives by helping them navigate through information more efficiently.

How does the structure of a written piece aid readers according to the transcript?

Adding structure such as headings and formatting helps readers navigate and understand the content more easily, especially when they are skimming.

What is one principle Todd Rogers suggests for effective writing and why is it important?

One principle is 'less is more', which suggests that omitting unnecessary words and ideas can make the writing more concise and increases the likelihood of readers engaging with the core message.

Why does Todd Rogers advocate for the use of simple language and short sentences?

Using simple language and short sentences makes the reading process less taxing and more accessible to a wider audience, including those with lower reading proficiency levels.

How does Todd Rogers view the role of word choice in effective writing?

He believes that word choice should prioritize clarity and simplicity over impressing the reader with complex vocabulary, to ensure the message is easily understood.

What does Todd Rogers think about the use of lists and bullet points in writing?

He thinks lists and bullet points are effective as long as they are used to organize related ideas, as they provide a clear structure that helps busy readers navigate the content.

How does Todd Rogers suggest writers increase a reader's engagement with their writing?

Writers can increase engagement by making the reading experience as easy and relevant as possible, and then leveraging social and behavioral science tools to further capture interest.

What generational differences does Todd Rogers highlight regarding the use of emojis?

He points out that different generations interpret the same emojis differently, with a smiley face, for example, signifying warmth and agreement to an older generation but sarcasm to younger individuals.

What is Todd Rogers' stance on setting communication norms within an organization?

He believes that setting clear communication norms, such as the BLUF (bottom line up front) principle in the military, can make writing more effective and reduce the burden on lower-status writers.

Outlines

00:00

📝 Effective Writing for Busy Readers

Matt Abrahams interviews Todd Rogers, a professor at Harvard Kennedy School, about his book 'Writing for Busy Readers.' The conversation focuses on how to write effectively for a busy audience. Todd emphasizes that effective writing saves readers' time and is a kinder form of communication. He explains that writing should reflect how people actually read, which often involves skimming. To accommodate this, writers should add structure to their work, such as headings, to help readers navigate the content easily.

05:00

🔍 The Importance of Structure and Clarity

The discussion continues with the importance of structuring content for easy navigation. Todd shares insights from academic research, including an experiment that showed shorter, less coherent messages can be more effective than longer ones. He advises writers to use fewer words and focus on key points to increase the likelihood of readers engaging with the message. The conversation also touches on the role of word choice and the benefits of using simple language and grammar.

10:02

🧐 The Role of Emotion and Engagement in Writing

Todd and Matt explore the emotional aspect of writing and its impact on reader engagement. Todd points out that while emotional writing can be compelling, the primary focus should be on making the writing practical and easy to understand. They discuss the challenges of writing clearly and the importance of capturing the reader's attention, even when the content is dense or complex.

15:04

🎯 Setting Communication Norms for Clarity

The conversation shifts to the importance of setting communication norms within organizations. Todd discusses the concept of 'bottom line up front' (BLUF) from the US Army, which emphasizes putting the most important information at the beginning of the message. He suggests that establishing such norms can help writers be more effective and protect them from misinterpretation, especially those with lower status within an organization.

20:04

📈 The Recipe for Successful Communication

Todd outlines the key ingredients for successful communication: having a clear goal, understanding the context, and revising the message. He stresses the importance of knowing the audience's expectations and norms, and the necessity of revising the content to ensure it is clear and accessible. The discussion concludes with Todd sharing his admiration for Don Norman's user-centered design philosophy and its application to writing.

25:05

🎉 Wrapping Up the Discussion on Writing

Matt summarizes the key points of the conversation with Todd, highlighting the need to make writing easy for busy readers, considering context, and the value of learning to write effectively. The episode ends with credits and a prompt for listeners to subscribe and follow the podcast on LinkedIn for more insights on communication.

Keywords

💡Effective Writing

Effective writing refers to the ability to communicate clearly and concisely, ensuring that the reader can easily understand and act upon the information presented. In the video, Todd Rogers emphasizes that effective writing is about making it easier for readers, particularly busy ones, to navigate through the text and extract key information quickly. An example from the script is when Rogers mentions that writing effectively saves readers' time and is a kinder approach, as it acknowledges the reality of skimming behavior in our fast-paced world.

💡Behavioral Insights

Behavioral insights are the findings from the study of human behavior, particularly how people make decisions and the factors that influence those decisions. Todd Rogers, who teaches courses on the science of behavior change, applies these insights to writing, arguing that understanding how people read (often by skimming) should inform how we write. This is exemplified in the script when he discusses the need to accommodate the reality of skimming in our writing to make it more effective.

💡Skimming

Skimming is a reading strategy where individuals quickly look over text to get the gist without reading every word. The concept is central to the video's message about writing for busy readers. Rogers points out that because people often skim, writers should structure their work with headings, bullet points, and clear key points to facilitate easy navigation, as illustrated by the discussion on designing for navigation.

💡Practical Writing

Practical writing encompasses all forms of written communication that serve a specific, immediate purpose, such as emails, reports, or sales pitches. In the context of the video, practical writing is contrasted with more artistic or literary writing. Rogers focuses on making practical writing accessible and easy to understand for busy readers, which is why he advises writers to prioritize clarity and simplicity over complex language or structure.

💡Structure

In writing, structure refers to the organization of ideas and information in a text. The video underscores the importance of a well-structured document that guides the reader through the content. Matt Abrahams discusses 'wayfinding' in writing, which is about helping readers navigate content easily, akin to how one navigates through a physical space. An example is the use of headings and formatting to highlight key information.

💡Less is More

This principle, as discussed in the video, advocates for brevity and conciseness in writing. By using fewer words and focusing on essential ideas, writers can improve the chances of their message being read and understood. Rogers shares an experiment where a shorter, seemingly incoherent fundraising email outperformed a longer one, demonstrating the effectiveness of brevity.

💡Eye-Tracking

Eye-tracking is a research method that studies the movement of the eye as individuals read. The video references eye-tracking to explain how readers' eyes move across a page, often pausing at periods and jumping back if the content is not immediately understood. This research supports the idea that simpler sentence structures and shorter paragraphs can reduce cognitive load and make reading more accessible.

💡Engagement

Engagement, in the context of the video, refers to the level of attention and interaction a reader has with the written content. Todd Rogers discusses strategies to increase engagement, such as making the writing easier to read and processing. He also talks about the different levels of disengagement, from not processing the information at all to only superficially engaging with it.

💡Bullet Points and Lists

Bullet points and lists are writing tools used to organize information in a way that is easy to scan and understand. The video suggests that while they can be effective for structuring related ideas and making writing more accessible, they should be used judiciously. Rogers explains that lists and bullet points can aid readers in quickly grasping the main points of the text.

💡Context

Context in writing refers to the situation, environment, or setting in which the communication takes place. Understanding the context is crucial for effective writing, as it influences what and how information is conveyed. The video mentions that different norms and expectations exist for writing within various contexts, and writers must be aware of these to communicate effectively.

Highlights

The importance of writing to engage busy readers and save them time.

Introduction to Todd Rogers, author of 'Writing for Busy Readers'.

Effective writing defined as making it easier for readers.

The impact of writing well on improving everyone's lives by being kinder and saving time.

The difference between effective writing and writing well.

The need to write in a way that reflects how people actually read.

The importance of adding structure to writing to aid navigation.

The concept of 'less is more' in writing to engage busy readers.

The idea of making reading easy with short common words and simple grammar.

The role of word choice in effective writing.

The application of behavioral science to increase reader engagement.

The use of lists and bullet points to aid reader comprehension.

The role of context, norms, status, and identity in writing.

The importance of setting communication norms within organizations.

The significance of revising writing to make it more accessible to busy readers.

Todd Rogers' pet peeve regarding the clarity of writing and its impact on readers.

The influence of Don Norman's user-centered design philosophy on writing.

The three key ingredients for successful communication according to Todd Rogers.

Transcripts

The bottom line is we must write so

that our readers will pay attention

and be engaged.

Today, we will learn how to become

better writers for busy readers.

My name is Matt Abrahams,

and I teach strategic communication

at Stanford Graduate School of

Business.

Welcome to Think Fast, Talk Smart,

The Podcast.

[MUSIC]

Today I really look forward to

speaking with Todd Rogers.

Todd is a professor of public

policy at the Harvard Kennedy

School of Government, and

is the faculty director of

the Behavioral Insights Group.

Todd teaches courses on the science

of behavior change, and

he has written a new book called,

Writing for Busy Readers,

Communicate More Effectively in

the Real World.

Todd, when you and I first got

a chance to speak a while back,

I felt like I was with a kindred

spirit, we both have such

a passion for communication.

Thanks for being here.

I'm super excited to chat with you.

>> Thanks for having me, Matt.

>> So let's get started.

My first question has to do with

one of the subheadings I found

in your book.

It caught my attention, it read,

better living through effective

writing.

First, I'd love for you to define

what you mean by effective writing.

And second, how does writing well

help us live better?

>> I love this question because I

think it is not initially obvious.

So, writing better

means making it easier for readers.

And the reason this improves

everyone's lives is because

it saves readers time, and

it's kinder.

Writing effectively makes it easy

for busy readers to navigate where

we send them, cool out the key

information, and do what

they're planning to do anyway.

We just move on through the next

day, and so it's more effective for

us and it's kinder to readers.

>> One thing that is very different

about the way you approach your

thoughts on writing is that you

focus on the reader, many others

focus on what is actually written.

Why is focusing on the reader so

important?

And what role does the reader's

context play in how we write

for them?

>> I think you're right that a lot

of the way we think about writing

is as if there are some idealized

form, writing well is the way you

were taught to write in high school

and college.

And that's successful writing.

What my co-author on a lot of this

work, including our book, and

I have come to believe is that

writing well is very different than

writing effectively.

And we should focus on,

how do we write effectively?

And what that means is we should

write in a way that reflects

the way people actually read.

And in the world, busy people

are just constantly skimming.

And no one cares about our

writing as much as we do, and

the default behavior when reading

is to move on and skip.

So we need to write in a way that

reflects and

accommodates the reality that

people are skimming what we write.

>> I agree, I skim all the time.

Sometimes that gets me in trouble.

What looks different in our

writing?

What actually tactically in

terms of the sentence structure,

the words we use, what's different

when you're writing for people who

skim, versus people who are trying

to demonstrate that they actually

did their homework in a class?

>> Right, so when someone is

skimming, they are jumping around,

they are trying to pull out,

not linearly, they're just trying

to jump around and figure out

what's this about, do I need to do

something, and when can I move on?

And so, when we watch with eye

tracking, we see the people

dart around and they try to get

the gist of what we're saying

without reading it closely.

So what that means is we want to

add structure, one of our six

principles is designed for

navigation.

Make it easy to design what we

write for readers.

So add headings, add structure, so

that a reader who jumps around can

easily figure out what's going on.

And that means that the key points

are up top, what this contains, so

they can orient themselves.

They can jump

around using headings,

that you can use formatting to draw

attention to key information.

But in addition to writing complete

sentences that flow from one side

to the next and had active verbs,

we also need to write in a way that

just reflects the reality

that our readers are jumping around

when they read.

And so that means writing with

structure.

>> Well, you're preaching to

the choir here.

And part of the reason I think you

and I get along so well is we both

believe very strongly in structure.

And when I was doing research for

the new book I have coming out,

I spoke with somebody who works for

the Dummies organization,

all those Dummies books.

And she talked to me about

wayfinding, how when you write,

you need to think about helping

people find their way through

your content.

And that's what I heard you just

talking about, that structure helps

people find their way in terms of

what it is they're specifically

looking for, and I think that's so

important, and

thank you for highlighting that.

You mentioned that your book has

six principles

that can help busy readers.

I love that your principles

are based on

academic social science research,

I think that's so important.

Can you pick two other principles

beyond structure that you

believe are really important?

And can you give us some concrete

advice on how to apply those?

>> Sure, so one is less is more.

And we've run lots and

lots of randomized experiments that

have something like this structure.

We ran an experiment with a large

political organization with a wrote

a fundraising email that was

six paragraphs.

In one condition,

with 350,000 people, they got

the full fundraising message.

In the other condition, we deleted

every other paragraph arbitrarily.

People read them both and

thought it was incoherent

in the shorter one, because we just

arbitrarily deleted paragraphs.

And yet, the three-paragraphed one

raised more money than the longer

one, even though it was incoherent,

just less is more.

Both in omitting needless words,

that's easy.

Of course,

if words are actually needless,

cut them, great.

The harder choices are omitting

useful, but not necessary words, or

useful but not necessary ideas.

And the idea is just the more you

keep, the less likely it is that

someone will read and

respond to our message.

So there's not a right answer to

how much to keep, we just need to

know there's trade-offs,

the more you add, the less likely

people are to read and engage.

But if they do,

they're going to get more content.

So, fewer words, but

also not just needless words, also

sometimes we have to make judgment

calls where we eliminate useful

detail that would just deter or

distract from our core point.

>> So it seems to me that we have

to be very mindful of what we write

and think about the reader's

perspective.

I think a lot of us are under such

pressure just to get ideas down

that we don't really think about

prioritizing what's important for

the reader, and making those

tradeoffs you talked about.

Before I ask you to share one more

of your principles, how much

does word choice play into this?

I mean, sometimes I read things

where people I think are purposely

trying to impress me with their

vocabulary, when in fact,

I think simpler might be better.

So less is more,

I also think simpler language

use might be better.

What do you think?

>> The second principle I might

share is that make reading easy.

That means short common words,

short sentences, simple grammar.

And the idea here is that it is

easier to read writing

that is written in this way.

So it requires less effort,

it's less taxing,

it's more pleasant,

easy exacts to read.

Additionally, it's accessible to

more people.

So this is a second point,

in addition to.

Just being more likely to be read

and responded to.

It also is more accessible and

inclusive.

So the median US adult reads at

a ninth-grade reading level.

Very often,

when we write these sentences,

they're complex.

They're complete.

They're beautifully written

with flowing pros, but

they're kind of inaccessible to

a large chunk of potential readers.

And one of my favorite parts about

writing the book and

I imagine you had the same

experience reading your book.

I love learning

about this literature that I had

never encountered before.

One of these huge areas of research

is on eye tracking how people's

eyes move when they read.

And if you can get people to read,

actually attentively,

carefully read, which is rarely

the way we actually read, but if

you get people to read like that,

what you see is a word, word, word,

word period.

And then at the period they pause

for the period pause effects, and

they sit there making it as if they

are making sense of did I get

the whole idea?

And if they didn't,

they go backwards and

they jump backwards and reread.

That's a pin.

It's cognitively difficult,

it requires effort, it makes people

less likely to continue.

Given that everyone, especially if

it's kind of practical writing,

text, email, reports, pitches.

They got lots of things in their

queue.

And so the easier we make

the reading, the faster it is it'll

be for the reader to get through

and the more accessible it'll be to

more people.

>> I love that eye-tracking

behavior, that's fascinating to me.

Thank you for sharing that.

I had never thought about that.

But sure, you can actually measure

if we're making it difficult.

I have two follow-up questions if

you'll allow me, Todd.

One, it strikes me that if I

write in a way that is easier for

my reader to digest, that I

am actually making that experience

a little more pleasant for them.

They're not as frustrated.

How does emotion play in what

you write?

I can imagine that if I write

something, that the material I'm

covering is emotional in nature.

That can be helpful in

some ways, right?

Because people are engaging

in a different way, but also their

experience of reading might bring

about an emotion as well.

I mean, I remember back in high

school when I was having to read

texts that I was not that

interested in, I

got frustrated when I was reading.

I'm not going to mention any books

because I don't want anybody to see

what I found offensive but

what are your thoughts on that?

>> The kinds of writing that I'm

mainly, so this book is co-authored

with my long-time co-author

Jessica Lasky Fanke, and the kind

of writing that we're really

focused on, and this all originated

with advising organization leaders

during the pandemic, communicating

to their stakeholders and

employees and constituents,

is practical writing.

When we are writing to our families

by text or

to our colleagues by email or Slack

or in sales proposals to potential

clients or current clients.

It's practical writing and so,

it's not going to be the literature

that we sometimes associate with

when we think of good writing.

So how do we write

practical writing?

That said, there are ways to be

more persuasive and

more compelling.

All of that is conditional,

or rather, requires that people

are paying attention.

And so, I have spent the last 20

years developing interventions to

increase people's likelihood

of voting, or increase people's

likelihood of choosing healthy

foods or increasing students'

likelihood of going to school by

communicating with family.

In all those with these

interventions in the field to

change behaviors,

what I only recently realized is

that seems zero.

What precedes all of the persuasion

and behavioral science that I and

my colleagues have been developing

is do they pay any attention to

what we're sending them,

to our communications.

And very often if it's very dense,

they just don't even bother

engaging at all.

Or if they do engage,

they engage superficially before

just moving on and say,

I'll get back to that later.

And so for me, the big context is

how do we get to the, before we can

be emotionally evocative or

persuasive or structure things

using different kinds of framing,

we need to write in a way that

people will engage and

process deeply enough to even get

our messages through.

>> I want to come back to this

question of engagement because I

think it's very critical.

But before I do,

you said writing simply and

using structure can help.

Do you have data or

an opinion on the use of lists and

bullet points?

Because at one level,

a list in bullet points, to me,

appears structured and it,

in many ways, is simpler than prose

with subjects, nouns, etc.

But I also know that processing

lists can be hard for people.

What's your take on bullet points

and lists to help people read

what's written better?

>> Assuming that they are used to

organize related ideas.

I think lists are fantastic,

like bullet points, for example.

So typically there is

an agreed-upon meaning of bullets.

We all agree that if there's

a sentence and then a bunch of

bullet points, that each of

the bullet points resembles each

other in some way, in some kind.

And they are all related to

the proceeding sentence, and so

that licenses the reader if they

understand what

the proceeding sentence

was to just skip the bullets

if it's not relevant to them.

But it also tells them that each

bullet is an independent idea and

that they're distinct.

Again, the goal through everything

is how do we make it easier for the

readers to navigate and understand

what we're trying to convey.

>> You have changed my perspective,

so thank you for that.

I have actively dissuaded people

from using bullet points and lists,

but I see their value in a written

form.

I still think I hold my position

that when you're speaking and

you're putting a slide up behind

you, that lists can be

challenging for your audience.

So I appreciate the balance we have

to find of leveraging visual

structure through bullet points and

lists without going overboard and

doing too much.

Which brings me back to the idea

that you mentioned just a bit

ago around engagement.

I'd love for you to talk about

how readers choose to engage or

not with writing and

give me specifically some

techniques that writers can use to

increase a reader's engagement.

I gave a talk today at an academic

conference where I opened with

raise your hand if you've ever

received a text message, and

you looked at it, and you're like,

I can't deal with this now, and

you postpone dealing with it and

everyone's hand goes up.

And then I said keep your hand up

if it has ever happened,

that you didn't get back to it.

And everyone's hands stays

up, right?

Which is exactly the shortest mode

of communication that's possible,

which is our text messages.

Even those people look like I just

can't deal with that.

That's the first version of

disengagement which is not even

processing it at all or

figure out what it's about.

That's like the first version of

not engaging at all.

The second stage is when you're

reading, how deeply do you

engage versus do you really read

sentence by sentence or

are you darting around?

And very often it's just darting

around.

And so there are strategies you can

use that a lot of it is influence

and behavioral science on

increasing people's interest or

personal relevance of content or

the pleasure they get in

the language you use.

But for us, starting point is,

let's just make it as easy as

possible for

the reader to leave the message

with the key information

we're trying to get back.

And from there,

then we can start to leverage these

other tools of social and

behavioral science.

So we just gotta get them to focus

and pay attention.

So this breeds another question,

obviously this isn't appropriate

for all writing.

What role do icons, emoticons,

emojis have?

Because in some ways those

are engaging,

I will look at a text that has

emojis in it in a different way

than one that just have words.

Do you have a position on that?

Is there research behind that?

>> I love the phrase,

do you have a position on it?

The only thing Majeska and I have

a position on is that our readers

are busy and we need to write

in a way that makes it as easy for

them to read what

we are sending them as possible.

That will be most effective for

us in achieving our goals as

writers and

it also pinder by saving them time.

That said there's been a bunch of

research on emojis that I think is

really fun, one,

there are lots of courts, federal,

state, international courts

that have ruled on the meaning of

emojis in financial documents.

It wouldn't surprise you if I told

you that a bunch of crypto

communications sometimes involves

emojis and courts have tried to

interpret what those mean as

contractually binding or not.

That's interesting enough, but

here's the most interesting thing.

There are surveys showing that

different generations, me being

a middle-aged guy versus my kids,

will interpret the same emojis

meaning something different.

So a smiley face to me means

warm feelings, probably agreement,

maybe humor and to my 13 year old

daughter, a smiley face means

sarcasm, and irony.

And so even just those kinds

of generational differences mean

that wow, emojis are dangerous for

clarity.

Because they are interpreted

different ways by different people.

That's just generational,

you can imagine different people

have different meanings for

different emojis.

So I think they have a place as

long as you know your audience, and

they are unambiguously both

appropriate, meaning

they somehow fit the norms of your

organization and you confidence

that it can be interpreted the way

you think it is.

>> I give you a thumbs up emoji

on that answer, and to me,

that means a good answer.

I think the jury is still out,

literally and figuratively, so

thank you.

You mentioned norms, and

I want to dig into that,

you talk in your book about norms,

status, and identity.

What do you mean by this, and

why does it even matter for

the writing that we do?

>> We are most effective

when we make it easy for a reader

to read what we're sending them.

And one of the things we talked

about is using fewer words,

fewer ideas, shorter.

Another is writing simply.

Another is designing it,

adding structures to it and

you said wayfinding throughout

the writing, like navigation.

Those are generally true, but

different people in different

contexts with different norms have

different expectations on them when

they write.

So when there are a bunch of state

department emails that were

released where lower status people

writing up, wrote longer,

more indirect messages.

Whereas higher status people

communicating down were shorter and

more direct.

If you are lower status,

there's a lot of like defensive

writing where you're not sure how

you're going to be interpreted.

You are very concerned about how

you're going to be understood and

what people

are going to think of you.

So, you as a writer,

any person listening,

has to really navigate the unequal

burdens on writers and

the way we are interpreted.

But the thing that is universally

true is that the person you

are writing to is busy and

probably skimming.

And so you want to make

it as easy as possible for them.

One thing that I teach when I teach

with leaders that how to

communicate, and

I hope this resonate with you

having read your book, that one

thing readers can do is set norms

for how do we communicate?

>> Yeah.

>> And in the US Army there is

a regulation an actual

codified regulation called BLUF,

bottom line up front an enlisted

person writing to a general.

Bottom line up front,

first sentence is the bottom line.

A general writing down to

an enlisted person.

Bottom line up front,

first sentence is the bottom line

and by making that a rule and

a norm in the organization,

it easier for writers to make sure

that they're effective.

It's easier for

readers because they know exactly

where to get the bottom line.

And it also protects the lower

status people from the kind of

burden of getting ambiguous

concerns about how they're going to

be interpreted.

So, as leaders we just set the

norms, to make it more effective

and all tech lower status writers.

>> That point is so critical and

one I think all of us

should think about in the roles we

serve in organizations.

What's important is the information

we convey, but we can also help set

the norms and expectations for

what that communication should look

like and read like.

And I don't think many

organizations do that,

save maybe the military or

some governmental agency or

something highly regulated.

I think that's a wonderful idea,

I often encourage the organizations

I consult to think about their

communication infrastructure.

And I'm talking about do you

use email versus Slack

versus texting for certain things.

I think they should add to that

this notion of what makes for

good writing and how can we make it

easier on the people who are doing

the reading?

So thank you.

>> So Garth before we end I'd like

to ask you a series of questions

two of them are similar across all

our guests and then I have one

random question I'm going

to ask her are you up for that?

>> Let's do it. >> All right,

let's start with the random

question first, what is a pet peeve

of yours that bothers you in

the writing that you see of people?

>> Writing can serve at least two

purposes.

One is clarifying our thinking and

the other is communicate that

magical idea of getting an idea

from my head into your head without

us directly interacting.

The second on is magic, but

the first one is also helping us

clarify our own thinking.

And I think what can be frustrating

as a reader is if people don't

realize those are two separate

things.

And when they're writing they write

starting wherever they thought they

were starting and

ending in a different place.

And at the end is where they really

want the key message to get

across to me.

And would probably be better if

they took the perspective how do

we make it easier for the reader?

The reader doesn't need to know

where you started, the reader needs

to know with the key information.

But those are two different

functions and editing and

revising is the key to getting from

the first essay.

>> Well put.

My pet peeve is along those lines.

It's people who start from

an assumption that you're where

they're at.

It's that curse of knowledge and

that really can be frustrating and

sometimes very intimidating.

So, question number two, and

you can take this as any

type of communication,

written, spoken, etc.

Who is a communicator

that you admire and why?

>> I'm going to take this,

I think a direction others had not.

I really like the approach of

Don Norman, who is the founder of

User-Centered Design,

and wrote a book called

The Design of Everyday Things.

And I'm not talking about

his writing though, he's prolific.

He's, like, basic philosophy is

if you've designed an object and

the user interacts with it, and

does not understand how to use it,

it's on you, the designer.

It's never the user's fault,

it's always the designer's fault.

And that design is a form of

communication, and Jessica and

I have that basic philosophy when

it comes to practical writing.

Even if my writing is super clear

and if you had read the whole

thing, you'd understand why we're

doing this, what time it is,

where it's happening, and

what you're supposed to bring.

If I send it to you and you don't

pull those information pieces from

it, that's on me, not on you.

It's always on the writer to make

sure it gets through to

the busy reader and

it's not just about clarity.

It's about actually accommodating

the fact that this person, that our

readers are busy and skimming.

>> Very important, the design

of your messages matters.

Final question, what are the first

three ingredients that go into

a successful communication recipe?

>> Three things, goal, context,

and revising.

Goal, we have to know what we're

trying to accomplish.

And maybe writing can help us

figure that out, but we have to be

super clear on our goal.

And then from there, we write and

we have to know our context.

What are the norms?

What are the expectations?

How are we going to be interpreted?

How much detail is expected of us

or needed or wanted.

And then revising is applying

the six principles of writing for

busy people, which

we've talked about three of them.

But so it's clarity of goal,

knowing your context and revising.

Unfortunately, all of them

are hard [LAUGH] >> But

necessary in the work I do around

oral communication, speaking,

they're identical.

This notion of iteration is

critical and it's a process.

Many of us just think,

I gotta get it out and it's done.

But it's actually an iterative

process and I appreciate that.

As do I appreciate this whole

conversation, Todd,

you certainly didn't disappoint,

your information was very valuable.

Allow me to structure it clearly.

Point one, people are busy right to

make it easier for them.

Point two we have to consider the

context when we write and context

includes norms, status, etc.

And point three, learning to write

better is something that you

can do and it's worth the effort.

Todd, thank you so much.

I wish you well on all that you do,

especially with your book, Writing

for Busy Readers, Communicate

More Effectively in the Real World.

Thank you.

>> Thank you, Matt.

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>> Thanks for joining us for

another episode of Think Fast, Talk

Smart, the podcast from Stanford

Graduate School of Business.

This episode was produced

by Jenny Luna, Ryan Campos, and me,

Matt Abrahams.

Our music was provided by

Floyd Wonder.

For more information and episodes,

find us on YouTube or

wherever you get your podcasts.

Thank you.

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