Something else I forgot to mention was a concept that I learned in the military called BLUF: Bottom Line Up Front. The idea is that most people aren’t going to read past the first sentence or two before skipping to the end so you better get the absolutely critical information out right away; before your reader gets bored/decides they have more pressing matters to deal with. I would regularly see emails that started with a summary before even the salutations.
I just saw this at work today for the first time from a younger person. No one I’ve ever emailed with has done summaries before. It took me by surprise… especially because this is an organization that is built on reading things.
Something else I forgot to mention was a concept that I learned in the military called BLUF: Bottom Line Up Front. The idea is that most people aren’t going to read past the first sentence or two before skipping to the end so you better get the absolutely critical information out right away; before your reader gets bored/decides they have more pressing matters to deal with. I would regularly see emails that started with a summary before even the salutations.
I just saw this at work today for the first time from a younger person. No one I’ve ever emailed with has done summaries before. It took me by surprise… especially because this is an organization that is built on reading things.
Oh, yes, we use BLUF at work a lot, but it’s not really useful if you’re trying to pass along detailed knowledge.