Work is becoming more written than spoken.

Work that once happened in rooms now happens in messages, documents, and threads. Decisions are increasingly made through writing rather than conversation, often across time zones, roles, and levels of context.

When organizations rely on written communication without clear standards for how decisions are documented, misunderstandings multiply. Accountability blurs. Work slows down or unravels downstream, not because people are not trying, but because decisions are not written clearly enough for others to act on them.

Organizations that perform well do not treat written communication as a soft skill or a personal strength. They treat it as infrastructure.

One practical shift makes a measurable difference. Require that written decisions answer three things, clearly and in one place:

1. What decision is being made

2. Who owns it

3. What happens next.

When those elements are explicit, teams spend less time clarifying, fewer decisions unravel later, and work becomes easier to manage. This happens not because people work harder, but because the system carries more of the load.

Organizations do not struggle because people are not trying hard enough. They struggle because decisions are not written clearly enough for others to act on them.

-- Ruth

posted on LinkedIn 01/01/2026