‘Too long; didn’t read’ and other harsh workplace rejections

You’re drafting an email on a big change to a project you’re leading. It’s late on a Friday, and you’re not able to call your manager to discuss the news, so you choose to alert her through email. You are careful to not just share the change outright, but rather share the rationale behind the change and the sequence of events that led to the change. You mention at the end that you’ll touch base on Monday when you’re back in the office to discuss further, but wanted the manager to know ASAP. After all, bad news does not get better with age, right? You hit 'send' on the message. Your manager's reply?  

It's just four letters: “TLDR.”

You have to Google it to learn the meaning is “Too Long; Didn’t Read.”

Ouch. Not only do you not feel supported at a time when you are reaching out for guidance in dealing with the project challenge, but you feel embarrassed, offended, and even angry.

How many times did you think you were delivering a clear and comprehensive message, but in reality the receiver never even read it?

This scenario captures many of the points we discussed at our recent CliffsNotes Book Club meeting, as Rob Hill presented on the book Smart Brevity.

The book, written by Axios executives Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, and Roy Schwartz, is a modern Elements of Style, with a focus on tips for concise, clear, and crisp workplace communications. As you might imagine, it talks a lot about email.
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The lesson with the Friday night email is “brevity signals confidence.” The tricky part is that providing the right level of context and the right level of detail while also being concise takes time. And we’re all rushing.

Three ‘Smart Brevity’ Tips

So, in this month’s blog post, I promise to be extra brief! I will share just three points from the book that really resonated.

Skimmable communication is a design requirement.

You see what I did there? A sub-header. When email first hit offices by storm, we wrote letters and, instead of printing them and stuffing them in envelopes for USPS, we hit ‘send.’ Many people still use email in that way—as electronic letters. However, given the pace of today’s work and the many other things competing for our attention, the type of communication that is heard and read and acted on is skimmable.
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The book talks about how important it is to package emails in easy-to-ready, visual-bite-sized chunks. Short blurbs and sub-headers are your friends.

Lead with the ‘BLUF,’ Bottom Line Up Front.

Smart Brevity advocates for leading with the conclusion, not the backstory or the chronology. When writing emails, some of my clients will literally put the abbreviation “BLUF” at the top of the message, along with a sentence or two summary. Any additional details are below in a short paragraph or two. The guidance for email as for news headlines is simple: start with what matters, then support it.

During our book club discussion, Rob Hill shared this clip (under 2 min) from the TV show Cheers. It illustrates the point beautifully—and is sure to make you smile!

Brevity builds trust.

The authors of Smart Brevity aim to not only help you write more effective, clear communications so you can get your point across and increase your influence in your organization, but they have a secondary purpose. They emphasize that respecting people’s time earns respect. The project manager who shot off a rambling message on a Friday afternoon was doing the right thing in terms of sharing information, but had they taken time to tighten up the message, and send a shorter more clear message, they’d also have shown respect for other people’s time. Communication is an important part of how we build and maintain relationships, at work and beyond.
 
What ‘Smart Brevity’ concepts or tricks do you use at work?