A new hire recently made an interesting observation.
Over a 24-hour period, most of our internal emails fell into three categories: opinions, thoughts, and analysis.
That’s a polite way of saying there was a lot of noise.
I appreciated the comment because it surfaced something many organizations struggle with.
Email can easily become a place where people process ideas rather than move work forward.
But good work communication should actually do something.
- It should be strategic, helping people understand the bigger objective.
- It should be decisive, clarifying what decision has been made.
- And it should be directional, making clear what happens next.
Before sending the next email, it’s worth asking a simple question:
Is this message moving the work forward?
Or am I just adding another opinion to the pile?
Clarity beats noise every time.