THE PANDEMIC has given a giant shove to all types of digital communication. Video-conferencing platforms have turn into verbs. Enterprise capitalists make their bets after watching digital pitches. Merchandise like Loom and mmhmm assist staff ship pre-recorded video messages to their colleagues. Greater than a 3rd of Slack customers every week are actually “huddling”—utilizing the product’s new audio characteristic to speak to one another. And all that is earlier than the metaverse turns everybody into an avatar.
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A office dominated by time on screens could appear certain to favour newer, quicker and extra visible methods of transmitting data. However an previous type of communication—writing—can also be flourishing. And never simply dashed-off emails and entries on digital whiteboards, however gradual, time-intensive writing. The strengths of the written phrase haven’t been diminished by the pandemic period. In some methods they’re ideally suited to it.*
The worth of writing is a staple in administration pondering. “The self-discipline of writing one thing down is step one towards making it occur,” reckoned Lee Iacocca, a quotable titan of the American automobile business. Jeff Bezos banned slide decks from conferences of senior Amazon executives again in 2004, in favour of well-structured memos. “PowerPoint-style shows by some means give permission to gloss over concepts,” he wrote.
Some executives write for themselves. Andrew Bosworth, a bigwig at Meta (previously Fb), has a weblog by which he muses apparently on many subjects, together with on writing itself: “In my expertise, dialogue expands the house of prospects whereas writing reduces it to its most important elements.” Others accomplish that to succeed in an viewers. Shareholder letters from Larry Fink and Warren Buffett are the company equal of a blockbuster ebook launch.
However the transfer to distant working has enhanced the worth of writing to the complete organisation, not simply the nook workplace. When duties are being handed off to colleagues in different areas, or persons are engaged on a venture “asynchronously”, which means at a time of their selecting, complete documentation is essential. When new workers begin work on one thing, they need the again story. When veterans depart an organisation, they need to depart information behind. Writing the whole lot down appears like an almighty ache. However so is popping as much as a gathering and never having the foggiest what was determined final day out.
Software program builders have already labored out the worth of the written phrase. A analysis programme from Google into the substances of profitable know-how tasks discovered that groups with high-quality documentation ship software program quicker and extra reliably. Gitlab, a code-hosting platform whose workforce is wholly distant, frames the key of profitable asynchronous working thus: “How would I ship this message, current this work, or transfer this venture ahead proper now if nobody else on my staff (or in my firm) have been awake?” Gitlab’s reply is “textual communication”. Its gospel is a handbook that’s publicly accessible, stretches to greater than 3,000 pages and lays out all of its inner processes.
The deliberation and self-discipline required by writing is useful in different contexts, too. “Brainwriting” is a brainstorming approach, utilized by Slack amongst others, by which contributors are given time to place down their concepts earlier than dialogue begins. Lists of company values could make greeting playing cards appear hard-hitting. However considerate codification of a agency’s tradition makes extra sense in hybrid and distant workplaces, the place new joiners have much less probability to satisfy and observe colleagues.
Purists will sniff that none of this counts as writing. However good prose and helpful prose share the identical important qualities: brevity, construction, a transparent theme. Cormac McCarthy, a prize-winning novelist, copy-edits scientific papers for enjoyable. Ted Chiang says that his science-fiction quick tales and his technical writing each draw on a want to elucidate an thought clearly.
Writing is just not at all times the easiest way to speak within the office. Video is extra memorable; a telephone name is faster; even PowerPoint has its place. However for the structured thought it calls for, and the convenience with which it may be shared and edited, the written phrase is made for distant work.
* Cynical readers might query a paean to the written phrase in a publication that sells a high quality type information and runs programs on enterprise writing. They’re welcome to write down in.
Learn extra from Bartleby, our columnist on administration and work:
The rise of performative work (Jan eighth 2022)
A memo from the boss on apology inflation (Jan 1st 2022)
The Beatles and the artwork of teamwork (Dec 18th 2021)
This text appeared within the Enterprise part of the print version beneath the headline “Of distant work and writing”
