Good Business Writing Wins Wars, Transforms Companies, and Eliminates Meetings

It promotes good thinking, but it is hard to make it stick.

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I like to write (that is why I blog).

So, I was tickled to learn that one of the first things that Churchill did when taking office was to take time to enforce his rules for clear writing: use shorter words and keep memos to one page. He said it was “slouthful not to compress your thoughts.”¹

This made for efficient written communication for the war effort. Good writing can help win wars.

Churchill’s efforts reminded me of Amazon’s approach to starting meetings with a six-page memo.² According to leaders at Amazon, good writing can transform your company.

Another writing culture I’ve admired is 37signals³. They practice asynchronous written communication. That is, someone writes a thoughtful document. Then, others take their time to write thoughtful responses to that. They claim that they can make many important decisions with this process. This shows that good writing can eliminate many meetings.

Why does it work?

Paul Graham says it best. Good writing is a sign of good thinking. If you create a business culture of good writing, you are creating a culture of good thinking. One of his essays says that writing about something shows you whether you really understand it. Writing about something forces you to think more deeply about it.

Amazon executives mention that the memos are and should be hard to write. This confirms Graham’s point that writing about something shows how little you might know about the topic. Writing forces you to think deeply about the issue.

When others at Amazon read the well-thought-out document, the conversations and decisions are better.

I worked for a CEO who encouraged us to write out our ideas in “full sentences.” In other words, PowerPoint bullet points let you get away with unclear thinking. Ideas expressed in complete sentences help minimize misunderstanding. 37signals calls this “long form” with the expectation that you think through the topic.

Writing more sounds good. Is it easy to implement?

Not in my experience.

At Opex Analytics, I was always disappointed that I couldn’t create a stronger writing culture. After we were acquired, I had less influence.

However, I tried to influence people by doing it. I spent a lot of time writing out my thoughts in full sentences. It helped my thinking. Once written, it was easy to share, even months later. I’d like to think that this effort had some influence and benefit.

If you like the idea of writing more, try it.

But I do have to give you a few warnings.

Don’t expect big changes or much feedback, at least initially. Most organizations and people are not set up to have strong writing cultures. Also, remember, you also need to practice too. The lack of feedback could also be that your document isn’t as well-written as you think.

And, even if you are an introvert and love the idea of writing, talking about ideas will probably always be more important.

If you write a document, you should expect that you’ll need to talk about it in a meeting.

At Amazon, after reading the six-page memo, the others in the room don’t write a response; they talk about it.

Churchill created an effective writing organization. However, he spent much of his days and into the wee hours of the night talking to many people. Good discussions and debates also win wars.

1. This quote is from the book, The Splendid and the Vile. Here is a post from that book:

Seven little-discussed day-to-day issues that consume a manager's time- from The Splendid and The Vile

2. Here is a Forbes article on the process and a Bezo’s letter to shareholders discussing it. There are lots of other good sources for this.

3. Jason Fried, the co-founder and CEO of 37signals, has written a few books, many blog posts, and done interviews. I think he gives good business advice. Here is one sample of his advice on internal communication, but many other sources are out there.