Business

Friday Buzz: Never Stop Writing

The importance of writing on a regular basis—for many different reasons. Also: Working with an outside team? Communicate with them the way they'd prefer.

As much as I write (see the number of bylines I have on this site), I don’t need to be convinced that there are some great psychological benefits to writing regularly. But you might.

As a result, this blog post recently shared on Lifehacker is a solid must-read. Written by Help Scout’s Gregory Ciotti, it explains the benefits of writing from numerous angles—as a way to keep mental tabs on your work, as a way to keep motivated, as a way to work through the tough stuff, and as a form of therapy.

“In both emotional intelligence and in hard sciences like mathematics, writing has been shown to help people communicate highly complex ideas more effectively. Writing helps eliminate ‘it sounded good in my head’ by forcing your hand; brains forgive fuzzy abstractions, prose does not,” Ciotti explains in his post.

But maybe the most interesting benefit is the way writing can help create positive feedback from peers, something Ciotti describes as “leadership at scale.”

“The ability to leave an impact at scale through your words alone is an astounding concept,” he explains. “There’s a bit of a creative shock the first time someone emails you, thanking you for the work you’ve put out and sharing how it has helped or influenced them.”

Check out his post to learn more.

The Format Matters

Trying to communicate a specific idea to stakeholders can be difficult, but failing to do so in a way that they’re used to can come with a ton of downsides for the relationship.

But communicating in a way that stakeholders actually like—say, sending designers a design brief that lays out the exact parameters of a project—is appreciated and is something we should do more of, argues FeverBee’s Richard Millington.

“Begin with the recipient’s perspective,” Millington explains in a blog post. “How do they want to receive this information? … If you’re not sure, ask. It differs by person and profession.”

He adds that this can be a huge time-saver and can greatly improve working relationships.

Other Links of Note

Learn to love flexible work. Jennifer Adams, head of enterprise solutions marketing for Plantronics, notes in a CMSWire piece that nearly half of all workers tend work in more flexible environments, outside of a traditional office.

News experiment to watch. The company behind the streaming platform BitTorrent is launching a news platform at next week’s Republican National Convention. Fortune has the details.

Could drones boost your event’s signal? AT&T is testing a new technology designed to improve mobile signals at large events, and it relies on drones.

(iStock/Thinkstock)

Ernie Smith

By Ernie Smith

Ernie Smith is a former senior editor for Associations Now. MORE

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