The Note Makeover

The average office is a veritable paper jungle, with literally tons of correspondence vying for everyone’s attention. The sad truth is that there simply isn’t enough time in the day to read and absorb all the information that crosses your desk, and still be able to apply it to the work you need to get done. Therefore, many of the memos we receive are immediately thrown away or “archived” for later reading (ie, thrown on the desk, forgotten, and eventually thrown away as out of date).

However, there is one marked exception to this rule. There are memos that withstand the storm, rise to the top of the In Bin tornado, and are read. Why is that? The answer is very simple:

They are interesting!

Imagine that! An interesting note? A sticky note that draws attention? A motivational email? It is possible, and you may have seen some in your own workplace. But they are very rare. The reason?
Most of the people who are forced to write these Mediocre Memos do so under pressure, or are unwilling or unable to devote adequate time and thought to their creation. They may feel that “no one is going to read it anyway.” Well, with that attitude, they’re right.

However, the authors of exceptional memos have taken a slightly different stance: they are determined to take the information they have to share and mold it into a format they would like to read themselves. They are convinced that, presented in the right way, their information will be of interest to everyone on their mailing list. On this solid and positive foundation, the exceptional memo writer can build his masterpiece.

Perhaps describing a humble office memo as a potential masterpiece is a touch melodramatic, but consider: if the information contained in the memo wasn’t important, why waste the time, effort, and paper to produce it? If the information is important enough to go through the creation process, isn’t it important enough to make it extraordinary? Of course it is, and it’s the extraordinary memo you read.

So what exactly does the production of an extraordinary memorandum entail?

As already stated, the extraordinary memorandum must start with a positive attitude about the value of the memorandum and the value of making it extraordinary.

The next step is to collect all the necessary information that can be included in the memo being written, and then delete at least half of it. Yes, removing at least half. Why? A memo very quickly overstays its welcome if it’s too long for its own good. Most vital messages can be conveyed in several sentences instead of several pages. Remove all “fluff” such as background data, unnecessary statistics, obvious explanations, boilerplate charts and graphs, etc. If your audience really requires all of the above information to understand and appreciate your topic, a memo is not the best format for your presentation. (You may want to consider scheduling a meeting or series of meetings where you can present the information with visual aids and included fact sheets.)

Now that you have a list of vital information to include in your memo, you need to ask yourself the same important question every marketing master and advertising ace has been asking for decades: “What’s in it for them?” In other words, what does my reader want and need to get out of this message? After all, just like a marketing master, your ultimate goal is to sell! You need to sell your message to your reader and get them to buy it. You must convince them that it is in their interest to read and apply your message.

Therefore, you must ask and answer “What’s in it for them?” ask, then apply the answer to the way you write your message.

This simple question will turn a monotonous request into an emotional appeal. A boring list of details turns into an encouraging outline of benefits. A dead thank you becomes a sincere gesture of appreciation and respect. A potentially boring collection of thoughts has been given the attention it deserves because, in the end, a mediocre grade has been skillfully transformed into an extraordinary one!