What do you do if your written communication in Strategy lacks clarity and conciseness?

To better your written communication in Strategy: - Know your audience - Clearly define the purpose of your document - Maintain the structure and flow - Remove unnecessary phrases and jargon - Support your argument with data and facts - Proofread ruthlessly - Break down complex concepts into understandable chunks Hope this helps!

Communication is vital for leaders and even more so for strategists. Your words and ideas must capture your team's attention and energy. If you're not connecting, find out why. Get clear feedback from your team and trusted advisors. What form of communication is your strength? Are you too verbose? Or is it too vague? Discover the root cause tripping you up so you can make a plan for change.

In my experience working with educational bodies, communication has always been about stripping the message to its core and presenting it to stakeholders in the medium they prefer. Infographic formats are brilliant for communicating succinctly. If presented well, users' eyes gravitate to the specific content they require, and each piece of information supports other pieces of content. The strategy is continuously communicated via a deep layering of information. In other words, each graphic is almost tailored to a specific subset of informational users. It combines images, facts, data, graphs, stories, and lists - the options are not exhaustive.

I believe that clarity of writing is clarity of thinking. If you can put your thoughts on a page clearly and concisely so that others can understand what you're trying to say and how to engage with it, you have a shot at creating a great strategy. This often involves creating drafts, editing them ruthlessly, and sharing them with others so that you receive feedback on what is clear and what is not. Clear writing helps facilitate dialogue and action. It's a critical starting point for any would-be strategist.

Here are three key points to remember when simplifying your strategic documents: 1. Simplify Language: Use clear, straightforward language. Avoid jargon unless it's widely understood. 2. Use Bullet Points (or numbers): Break down tasks and deadlines into concise bullets for clarity. 3. Clarify Responsibilities: Clearly outline who does what in active language.

As a strategist, you may see connections where others don't. This may be reflected in your communications. Prepare your communication with the intended audience and your desired result. Make sure you are framing the ideas in clear language. Perhaps even start with the end and work backward.

Stories are a great connector and can convey even complex ideas. Are you using enough of them in your message structure? Can you structure your message in small bite-size pieces and bring your audience along?

One useful approach is to identify every adjective in the doc and try to replace as many adjectives as possible with data. This lends itself to delivering cleaner and more intellectually honest work. Then be clear about what aspect of your argument the data supports. Whenever you can’t replace an adjective with data, consider eliminating the sentence altogether.

Getting feedback from others is a gift for anyone trying to write clean, clear copy. We often think our writing is clear -- why else would we have written it! Others can identify things like unstated assumptions, leaps in logic, murky descriptions and jargon, all of which present barriers to being understood. Seek out other people's opinions and embrace their questions. It will lead to better writing.

Working in a multilingual environment where many people's first language isn't English, I find it valuable to ask for clarification on what people understand from my communication. As the saying goes, 'A lot can be lost in translation!

As a strategist, the idea spark can be thrilling. You want to share it so everyone can enjoy it. But sometimes, the connections that led to the spark are not as clear to others. Test and validate your strategy. Try it out with a trusted editor and communicator—perhaps an excellent communicator. Editing and structure can be your friends, as can testing and practice.