Writing at Work / Digital Communication
As each day passes, digital communication becomes more integrated into our daily lives. In order to be highly productive, you need to have excellent digital skills. With remote working, we may have become more casual in our personal lives, but our professional lives are still more or less strictly business. I used to have daily lunch, coffee, happy hour chats with numerous colleagues and customers throughout the day. Now, I have scheduled meetings with agenda items and time limits. So how do we continue to be highly productive and effective employees without turning into robots? One important way is through sharpening our digital communication skills. For me, typing is easier than talking, maybe because I have been using computers for as long as I can remember. This is true for most Millennials and absolutely for Gen Z. However comfortable we are typing, we do have a reputation and blind spots for over communicating and vocalizing problems with no solutions.
How do we all improve our digital communication skills? Start by writing! Emailing, chatting, blogging - it's all writing using our typing skills and computers. Many great leaders, including Jeff Bezos and Jessica Alba, believe in the power of intention- working backwards from the end customer and starting with the 'why' at the heart of what they do. The same is true for writing! Start with an intention and bring clarity to that idea. Great writers are also typically great readers - pick up a book!
Digital Communication Success Story!
A group of women from my San Diego book club are founding a chapter of Period.org named Period@Encinitas, working to bring menstrual equity to our community (almost a quarter of students with a period struggle to access period products and miss school as a result via Forbes). Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are operating everything remotely and digitally - virtual grassroots! We shared via email a community need for nearly 10,000 monthly period products. A few days later our chapter President was on a virtual meeting with the National HQ when they offered to supply our chapter with 25,000 products thanks to an expected corporate donations from Ipsy and Cora! Thanks to the internet, remote work technology and digital marketing campaigns, we are able to great our own virtual supply chain charity network and serve our community. By having an intention, collecting and sharing important data, and communicating - you can accomplish a lot.
Amazon is widely known for our leadership principles and the practice of working backwards from the customer. Most of the business world is also familiar with the writing process that implores employees to think big, clarify their ideas into a document and communicate their vision to leadership using the document as the mechanism. It's a fantastic process that I have experience with as an employee and highly support. Innovating, building relationships, advancing your career are all still possible in this remote world. They all just require the digital acumen to communicate effectively rather than just the natural personality and social skills you can use in the office!
Tips
1. Intention - Set your intention for writing this piece of content. Why are you writing this?
2. Eliminate Distractions - Shutdown email, set Slack to away and put your cellphone in another room.
3. Power of the Draft - the first run does not have to be the final version. The concept of 'living documents' can take away pressure if you know you can update it later.
4. Feedback - seek feedback from peers that are knowledgeable on the topic, great writers or people your trust and respect.
Just Downloaded:
Currently Reading:
An Unquiet Mind by Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison
The Surrender Experiment by Michael A. Singer
Just Read:
-MaddyMo
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