Have one goal: Make the work easy for your coworkers.
Minimize guesswork for your coworkers. Reduce your coworkers’ cognitive burden. Leave written information for your work so that your coworkers can quickly understand the context. Ask questions in a way that can be easily understood.
Keep the communication short. Everyone is busy. Respect the coworkers' time as much as you respect your own. Aim for high-density rather than high word count.
Ernest Hemingway's writing style is powerful and fun to read. And this is applicable to all forms of communication:
- Use shorter sentences
- Use positive language
- Leave out adverbs
- Pick simpler words
Great communication is clear, concise, and direct. It has a focused goal.
Don’t worry about looking good. Focus on achieving the goal. Lengthy and bloated communication is the result of trying to make something cosmetically good. And that does not add value. More is not better. Better is better.
Ask yourself, if your coworkers take a task after you — will they be able to understand what’s going on in 5 minutes? If not, clean up your work. Make it strikingly easy for them.
