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Written Communication

Conclusion first, the one-page discipline, documents that survive the room, and email as a governance instrument.

  1. 01

    The One-Page Memo

    A six-part template with an annotated example. Roughly four hundred words, and it holds everything a reader needs in order to decide.

  2. 02

    Board Packets and Reports

    A packet that reports only what went well produces a board that cannot govern and, when something surfaces, cannot defend the management that concealed it.

  3. 03

    Email as a Governance Instrument

    Email is a record that outlives everyone on the thread and reaches audiences never contemplated. The discipline is not writing less; it is writing the same thing everywhere.

  4. 04

    Writing That Survives the Room

    Write for the reader who was not there. Everything a document leaves implicit is supplied by shared context, and shared context is exactly what disappears first.

  5. 05

    The One-Page Discipline

    The constraint is not about respecting the reader's time. It forces the writer to resolve what they actually think, and a page that will not close is usually reporting an unfinished decision.

  6. 06

    Conclusion First

    The narrative build works when the reader has time and no power. Reverse it for anyone who has neither, because they will stop reading before your argument arrives.

  7. 07

    Writing Is How Decisions Persist

    A decision that exists only in the memories of the people who were present will be gone within two years. Writing is not documentation of the work; for anything meant to outlast you, it…