Hey :)

Something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately is writing.

More specifically, writing as the primary way we communicate ideas inside a team.

I picked this up years ago from the guys at 37signals, especially Jason Fried. If you’ve ever used Basecamp, you’ll notice something straight away: you can’t send voice notes. There’s no audio messaging. That’s not an accident. They’ve always been quite outspoken about avoiding that kind of always-on, instant communication.

Their philosophy is much more about thoughtful, asynchronous work. Not constant interruption. Not reacting instantly. Think first, then communicate.

And that idea has stuck with me for years.

But recently, as we’re building a new business, I’ve been thinking about it even more seriously. Why is writing such a big deal? Why does it actually matter?

A few reasons come to mind.

The first one is something I’ve experienced many times in meetings.

You’re in a Zoom call or a Teams meeting, and you start explaining an idea for the first time. Almost immediately you see people reacting. Someone’s face changes because they disagree with one part of it. Someone interrupts before you’ve finished the full thought. Someone else jumps in with a question that you were literally about to answer in the next sentence.

And suddenly the conversation is all over the place.

The other thing that often happens is even more revealing: you start explaining the idea and you realise, mid-sentence, that you haven’t actually thought it through properly.

There are gaps.

You’re trying to figure it out while you’re talking.

Which usually means the team ends up sitting through a half-baked idea that probably should have been thought through more carefully beforehand.

That’s frustrating for everyone.

So one thing I’ve been trying to emphasise more is this: write the idea first.

Before the meeting. Before the discussion. Before the debate.

Write it out fully.

And there are really two skills here that I think matter inside a team:

Both matter.

Because writing without reading is pointless. You can write the most thoughtful piece in the world, but if nobody actually reads it before the conversation, the whole thing breaks down again.

But when it works, it’s powerful.

For one thing, writing forces thinking.

You can’t really hide from your own ideas when you write them down. You start to see the holes. You start to notice the parts that don’t quite make sense. You start asking yourself the same questions your team would ask.

And you get to do that in your own time, without interruption.

No one is staring at you on a call. No one is reacting in real time. You can take an hour, a day, or longer to actually think something through properly. Write a draft. Rewrite it. Tighten it up.

That process alone improves the quality of the idea.

Another thing writing does is it promote a certain level of accountability.

If someone sends something to the team that’s rambling, unclear, or obviously half-thought-through, it stands out. It’s obvious the work hasn’t really been done yet.

Good internal writing tends to be tight. Clear. Concise. You can see that someone has actually sat with the problem and worked through it.

And honestly, sometimes the act of writing reveals that the idea isn’t very good in the first place.

You write it out, step back, and think, “Actually… this probably isn’t worth doing.”

Which is great.

You’ve just saved the team from spending a meeting discussing something that shouldn’t exist.

Another benefit is that people actually get to read a complete idea from start to finish before reacting to it.

If you imagine a meeting where you’re explaining something live, the resistance, objections, interruptions, and questions all show up mid-flow. Before you’ve even finished the idea, the discussion has already started pulling it apart.

That makes it really hard for a proper conversation to happen.

But when someone reads the idea first, the process is different.

The objections and resistance still show up — that’s normal — but people get the chance to work through those reactions themselves. They can pause, think about it, maybe read it again. Maybe come back to it the next day.

And that’s actually important.

Because it gives people space to process the emotional reaction that would normally show up instantly in a meeting. Instead of reacting immediately, they can sit with the idea for a bit and come to their own conclusions.

They might still disagree with parts of it, but at least they’ve engaged with the full thought.

By the time you actually get together to discuss it, everyone has seen the whole idea.

And that changes the quality of the conversation.

You’re not spending the meeting explaining the basics. You’re not fighting through interruptions. You’re not trying to finish your sentence.

Instead, you’re starting from a shared understanding.

Which means the time you spend together is far more productive. You can move through issues faster. You can get to decisions quicker. The discussion is more thoughtful because people have already done some of the thinking on their own.

So the whole idea here is pretty simple.

Think first.

Write to communicate.

Slow things down a little.

And create some accountability in the team to actually read things properly before discussing them.

When that happens, something interesting starts to emerge inside a company.

People think more carefully.

Ideas get better.

And the conversations you have together become much more useful.

🗣️👀

Chris.