MEPX
Chapter 8 of 10All chapters
  1. 1The curse of knowledge
  2. 2Listening
  3. 3Being understood
  4. 4Choosing the channel
  5. 5Feedback
  6. 6Difficult conversations
  7. 7Meetings
  8. 8Remote and written
  9. 9Adapting to the audience
  10. 10Getting better

Chapter 8 of 10

Remote and written

Communicating without a room.

Losing tone

Written messages read colder than intended, and brevity reads as annoyance. A little explicit warmth costs a few words and prevents a lot of misreading.

  • Assume good intent before responding to something that stings.
  • If two messages have not resolved it, switch to a call.

Asynchronous by default

Write so that someone can act without asking you a follow-up: context, request, deadline, and what to do if blocked. That is what makes distributed work possible.