(2023-02-06) Cutler Tbm952 Writing Culture Challenges

John Cutler TBM 9/52: Writing Culture Challenges. A writing culture is a reading culture and a feedback-giving culture. (Org Writing Practices)

The first step to thinking about the path to a writing culture is to understand WHY a presentation culture is firmly entrenched at your company.

Story 1

Most people are familiar with a "silent read" to start a meeting. I recently suggested to a startup founder that they open specific meetings with a ten-minute silent read, and the response was telling: We can't do that! Our time is precious, and people can do that in their downtime

Story 2

A busy SVP friend explained that the best time for reading was "international flights". "That's when I catch up on all the memos," they explained. "People know my turnaround is faster when I have to fly, so I magically get a bunch of docs the day before I leave." That's funny, but what does that say about their schedule and the ratio of focused/thoughtful time to hurried, frenetic time?

you can't just "switch" to writing culture. It has very little to do with the writing and everything to do with the preoccupation with busyness, optics, power, control, and tempo.