Writing Internal Memos

One of the most legendary marketers of all time: David Ogilvy. In 1982, David wrote an internal memo to the employees of his advertising agency titled "How to write." And in just 10 bullets he put together a masterclass in effective writing. Here's a breakdown of each one: The memo starts with a clear why. "The better you write, the higher you will go in Ogilvy & Mather. People who think well, write well. Good writing is not a natural gift. You have to learn to write well." Replace "Ogilvy & Mather" with any company and this holds true. 1/ Read the Roman-Raphelson book on writing. Read it 3 times. Every company on Earth would be a better place if this book was required reading. If you are still sending emails with Walls of Text, order this. 2/ Write the way you talk. Naturally. "Finding your writing voice" is a waste of time. You already have your voice—the one you use every day. Here's how to start using it in your writing: • Choose a topic • Record yourself talking about it Then, transcribe it and start there. 3/ Use short words, short sentences, and short paragraphs. This one takes practice. But the easiest way to find when you're being too wordy? Read everything aloud before you publish it. When you find yourself getting caught up, it's a sign you need to simplify. 4/ Never use jargon words like "reconceptualizes, demassification, attitudinally, judgementally." When you see someone using jargon, they're hiding their lack of understanding. An easy solution: pretend you are writing to an 8th grader. 5/ Never write more than two pages on any subject. 99% of books should be blog posts. And 99% of blog posts should be tweets. I would preface this by saying: never *publish* more than two pages on any subject. If it can't fit in two pages, it should be simpler. 6/ Check your quotations. This one is simple enough. Misquotes are unforced errors. 7/ Never send a letter or memo on the day you write it. Read it aloud the next morning, then edit it. This is the number one piece of writing advice I give people. If you are publishing something important, always, always, give it room to breathe. And always read it aloud. 8/ If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it. This pairs nicely with point number 7. If it's something really important, write it, give it a day, edit it, then send it to a colleague. 9/ Before you send your letter or memo, make sure it is crystal clear what you want the recipient to do. Put yourself in the reader's shoes and identify exactly the next step they should take after reading. Then, articulate those steps for them. 10/ If you want ACTION, don't write. Go tell the guy what you want. Last and most importantly, writing is never a replacement for a targeted conversation. Most messages should be conversations, especially ones that require action. Boom, that's it! Which one will you start using today? Let me know!

Very few companies get internal comms right like Stripe does. And no one treats internal comms as not just a tool—but a craft—for sharper thinking, better decisions, and company-wide alignment. Brie Wolfson, an early Stripe employee who launched Stripe Press, shared insights into Stripe’s documentation & internal communication practices on First Round Capital’s podcast with Brett Berson. Here's a one-pager for folks who want to uplevel their company's internal comms. Key takeaways: ✍️ Pre-meeting memos were mandatory—no meetings without written context. 📄 Kickoff docs structured every project, defining goals & risks upfront. 📬 Email transparency by default—key decisions documented & CC’d. 📖 Documentation wasn’t bureaucracy—it was a competitive advantage.

The one doc every cyber pro should learn to write No, it’s not a policy. It’s a security decision memo. You need to show you can influence decisions. A great security decision memo includes: 1. The risk - What’s the threat, exposure, or concern? Frame it clearly—business first, then technical. 2. The options - Present 2–3 clear paths: do nothing, fix partially, fix fully. Include the pros, cons, and impact of each. 3. The recommendation - What should we do and why? Keep it focused on business value and risk reduction. 4. The tradeoffs - What are we accepting if we delay or say no? Show that you’ve thought it through. 5. The cost - Not just dollars—cost in engineering time, user friction, or productivity. 6. The call to action - What decision are you asking for? Who needs to sign off? And most importantly: No jargon. No fluff. No fear-mongering. Make it readable by legal, product, and the CFO. Being able to write one makes you look like leadership—even if you’re not there yet !

Imagine the energy and commitment you pour into your work, akin to rowing with all your might. Now picture this effort being diluted because the team's oars aren't hitting the water in harmony. The result? Despite the exertion, progress remains agonizingly out of reach. This misalignment isn't just frustrating; it's a significant bottleneck to innovation and efficiency. This scenario is avoidable! Effective internal communications serve as the glue that binds individual efforts into a cohesive force, ensuring that every stroke propels the entire team forward. Without this alignment, you might as well be rowing against the current. Performing a communication audit is the first step in uncovering how you can improve. This exercise is not just about pinpointing flaws; it's an opportunity to reaffirm what works well and to fortify the bridges of dialogue within your tech team. Set Clear Objectives Begin with a clear vision of what you aim to achieve through this audit. Is it to improve project turnaround times, enhance team cohesion, or maybe streamline decision-making processes? Setting clear objectives will not only provide direction but also help in measuring the audit's success. Conduct Surveys and Interviews Reach out to your team members through surveys or one-on-one interviews to gather firsthand insights into the communication dynamics. Ask about the clarity of roles and objectives, the effectiveness of current tools, and any barriers they face in communicating effectively. Remember, the goal is to listen and understand, not to judge or critique. Analyze the Data With your collected data in hand, start identifying patterns and anomalies. Are there recurring themes of confusion around certain types of communication? Do certain tools facilitate better clarity than others? This analysis will highlight both the strengths to build upon and the gaps needing attention. Compile Recommendations and Action Plan Based on your findings, draft a set of actionable recommendations aimed at enhancing communication. This might involve adopting new tools, revising communication protocols, or initiating training sessions. The key is to prioritize actions that align with your initial objectives and to propose solutions that resonate with your team’s culture and needs. If you could only choose 1 are to audit for your team, which would you pick and why? #techleadership #teamcommunication #topvocies

Working on your resume and want to show your impact? Here are two things to remember: 1. Impact is almost never related to keywords in the *job description.* Impact comes from turning around or resolving a business problem. These business problems rarely show up in job descriptions. 2. To show impact, your *accomplishment* needs to be put in the context of the business problem it solved. That is, impact = "<a problem existed>, so <I did a thing>, and <business benefits resulted>." Your resume must show impact for the hiring manager to bring you in for an interview. For example (based on a story from a client I worked with): * Brattle struggled, and failed, to quantitatively assess its investment analysts for years. I led the development of an accurate algorithm and its implementation into an internal tool that helped analysts justify their decisions and provided managers with a tracking tool. This innovation also served as a competitive differentiator, leading to shorter and faster sales cycles. This bullet point: • Sets the context of a meaningful problem ("failure to quantitatively assess its investment analysts") and why it was worth solving. • Shows the business outcome ("decision justification" and "competitive differentiator leading to faster sales") and how it was meaningful. • Implies mastery of many key product management skills - discovery, prioritization, working with developers, etc. Your action: --> Review your resume's bullet points. Is it clear what business problem your accomplishments address? Is it clear why the result was meaningful? Are your bullet points showing your impact? Or are they simply saying, in effect, "I did my job."

Employees tuning out to your communication efforts? Last week, I watched as my client's comms team copied and pasted the same message into Teams, Outlook, and SharePoint.   Again, and again and again.   Each platform required different formatting. Different context. Different approaches.   Her team was putting in double the work - crafting for Teams, rewriting for email, reformatting for SharePoint.   And the employees? Tuning out. Not because they couldn't check everything, but because they were fed up with having to.   I've seen this pattern with organizations of all sizes.   For my client's recent Internal Copilot Prompt-a-Thon campaign, we suggested something different.   We explored Microsoft Viva Amplify together - a tool often overlooked in the Viva suite.   Instead of creating content multiple times, they created it once and let Amplify handle the distribution across channels.   Their objectives remained ambitious: - Build staff confidence with Copilot - Develop practical prompting techniques - Improve organization-wide adoption - Progress employees from beginner to intermediate   But the approach changed completely.   Instead of asking employees to find content, we brought it to them - whether in Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, or Viva Connections.   The results were eye-opening. Participation increased 40%. Feedback improved. And the comms team spent less time copy and pasting, reformatting and more time creating valuable content.   After 18+ years of guiding internal comms strategies, I'm still learning alongside my clients. I used to think successful communication was about being everywhere at once.   Over the years this has changed. I see it's about meeting people where they already are.   What communication challenges is your organization facing? I'd love to hear what's working (or not working) for you. #VivaAmplify #Copilot #SharePoint #Outlook #InternalCommunications #HR #Intranet

David Ogilvy built a $363.2 million advertising empire with one secret weapon: writing. In 1982, he sent this internal memo to 3,000+ employees that's better advice than anything you'll find on LinkedIn today: Here's his exact advice: "The better you write, the higher you go in Ogilvy & Mather. People who think well, write well. Woolly minded people write woolly memos, woolly letters and woolly speeches." Then he gave them 10 rules: 1. Read the Roman-Raphaelson book on writing. Read it three times. 2. Write the way you talk. Naturally. 3. Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs. 4. Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious as*. 5. Never write more than two pages on any subject. 6. Check your quotations. 7. Never send a letter or memo on the day you write it. Read it aloud the next morning - and then edit it. 8. If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it. 9. Before you send your letter or memo, make sure it is crystal clear what you want the recipient to do. 10. If you want ACTION, don't write. Go and tell the guy what you want. TAKEAWAY: Most business writing today is terrible. And AI is making it worse. Ogilvy knew that clear writing = clear thinking. And clear thinking builds better businesses. Period. P.S. Which of these 10 rules do you break most often? I'm definitely guilty of sending emails the same day I write them. What about you? 👇

How I cut my revision time in half with this system: I used to spend weeks on every paper revision I received. (More productivity tips in my newsletter: https://lnkd.in/e4HfhmrH) Then I learned to categorize before I act. Step 1: Plot each suggestion on the matrix High impact + Low effort (green zone) High impact + High effort (yellow zone) Low impact + Low effort (blue zone) Low impact + High effort (red zone) Step 2: Start with green zone items These are your quick wins. Handle them first. They give maximum results for minimal investment. Step 3: Schedule yellow zone carefully Block dedicated time for high-impact, high-effort changes. Don't squeeze them between meetings. Step 4: Batch blue zone items Save low-impact, low-effort tasks for when you have spare time. Or when you need a mental break. Step 5: Challenge red zone requests Politely question whether these changes are truly necessary. Often, they're not. The result: We finished our last major revision in 2 weeks instead of 2 months. Time spent evaluating feedback upfront saves hours of wasted effort later. Most people jump straight into changes without thinking strategically. Know which ones matter most. It forces you to be intentional about where you invest your energy. Try it on your next paper revision and let me know if it helps.

Cultural misunderstanding and cultural adjustment are among the top fears of international educators, according to a recent survey that I commissioned. Multicultural communication requires thoughtful consideration. People new to working abroad don't automatically know all the cultural nuances that are important to good communication. Several factors confuse it. First, multicultural communication involves exchanges between one or more second-language learners. It's easy to miscommunicate when people don't understand the level of language in the conversation. All staff I know, new or veteran, want good communication. However, gaining it requires hard work and effort, and multicultural communication is especially tricky. 🔥 HOT TIP 1. AVOID TECHNICAL SCHOOL JARGON Educators use school-speak all the time when we talk with each other. Still, we need to remember that parents may be unfamiliar with technical terms such as IEP, vertical alignment, essential questions, or RIT scores. I've sat in many parent meetings where educators start speaking like this, but parents don't want to look bad. Therefore, they won't ask. When I see this happen, I always stop the meeting and ask parents if they understand the terms—99% of the time, the answer is "no." The solution is to use parent-friendly language when communicating using these terms. Yet, that strategy only works when educators make the purposeful effort to speak or write that way. 🔥 HOT TIP 2. AVOID USING IDIOMS AND COMPLEX LANGUAGE Next to jargon, using idioms and complex words is the most common way I see communication breakdown in multicultural meetings. People use idioms that second-language learners don't understand. The other communication problem is using big words that are too complex for second-language speakers to understand. 🔥 HOT TIP 3. SEEK ADVICE ABOUT CULTURAL COMMUNICATION When we are new to a country's culture, it's beneficial to understand cultural nuances before we start writing to parents. Cultural insensitivity can be a deadly mistake that will damage our relationship with families before we've even started working with their children. Did your school provide training about culturally sensitive communication? Another way to learn about cultural nuances is to ask your mentor or team leader for advice. Listen carefully to all their suggestions and take them to heart. That way, your communication with families will start on a good note, and that will put them solidly on your side. You can take the time to get a good start when communicating in a multicultural school. The time you spend learning about it will help you establish clear channels of communication that will make your work easier. What multicultural communication tips can you share as part of this conversation? Please feel free to comment below. _______ Copyright 2024 by Kelley Ridings

Here are my quick-fire resume best practices (and WHY I recommend these): ✅ Single column format These are more space efficient than two column templates (2 margins instead of 3). You also get more control over the ORDER in which a human reads your resume. ✅ Contact info should include email, LinkedIn, and phone number Use hyperlinks for your email and LI URL (and type out the full URL vs. just "LinkedIn"). Leave off location unless applying for roles in that city. ✅ Tailored summary header Don't say "Professional Summary", say e.g. "Social Media Manager Summary". Put the job function in the header and customize it to each job description. ✅ Bullet point summary Paragraphs are often long and difficult to skim for human readers. They're also harder to quickly customize between applications, and tend to get fluffy pretty quick. Stick to 3-5 bullet points. ✅ Tailored summary for each position You don't need to rewrite your resume for every single job. Just tweak your top summary section. Think of this as your "greatest hits" section where you choose which 3 of your most impressive bullet points to "feature" at the top based on each position. ✅ Section divisions Use page width underlines or another visual cue to divide resume sections. This makes it easier for readers to find what they're looking for. ✅ Bullet point length: No more than 2 lines of text Bullet points that are 3 lines or more are visually more exhausting to read and risk getting skipped over. ✅ Accomplishment-oriented bullet points Replace "job description-y" bullet points with ones that highlight a specific project, a measurable result, or a clear outcome. Include WHAT you did, HOW much, and WHY it mattered. ✅ 2-5 bullet points per position Any less and I'm asking "why is this position here." Any more and run the risk of people not reading them all. More relevant roles should have 4-5. ✅ Right justified dates Keep your employment dates aligned along the right margin. It's easier to scan down the side of your resume and see the timeline of your career. ✅ Skills-sections at the bottom, if at all Reserve skills sections for technical skills (software programs, languages, systems, etc.). If all your skills section says is stuff like Communication, Problem Solving, and MS Office, you can get rid of it entirely. ✅ One-page or two-page is fine Either is okay so long as you're not getting too cramped or too fluffy. 10+ years of experience tends to start needing a second page, but if you can keep to one, that's great too. ✅ PDF format Always share your resume as a PDF to ensure the formatting doesn't get messed up if someone opens it using a different word processor. Include both your name and the word "resume" in the file name. What are some of your go-to resume best practices in 2025?