HOW TO WRITE A GREAT MEMO.
Hey it's Chaltrends here and today I want to talk to you about how to write a great memo a memo is usually sent as an email and replace the need to have an entire meeting about a small subject which could be explained with a little memo but memos have a tendency to become long and boring and a long and boring memo can easily waste a lot of time.
And start causing people to hate getting future memos this is a bad thing so what can a memo do well here's some examples of what a memo can convey an IT guy sending a reminder that all passwords need to be updated every 60 days or an office manager reminding people to put all the dishes in the sink by the end of the day it could be CEO explaining a new bonus policy or it could be a VP telling their division they're falling behind for the year.
And need to meet certain numbers all of these things can be explained in a memo and let's see how we can make it a great memo and let's see how we can make it a great memo well we have five great tips for writing a great memo.
So let's get started..... memo tip number one.
1. Make sure you have a crazily -easy-to-understand request BEFORE writing your memo.
A lot of memos are long and rambling and by the end of the email you don't even know what the heck it's about so before even blasting out a memo to everyone ask yourself these questions.
- Does this even NEED to be a memo?
- This will take up people's time is this something that can wait ?
- If I got this memo in my inbox what I just roll my eyes?
- If I could get people to take one action after reading this memo what would it be?
If you can not answer any of those questions perhaps you need to rethink if you should send out this memo at all needless memos take up time cause needless friction and pile more work onto already busy people.
So let's make sure the memo is 100% necessary before even sending it out.
2. Get the ''essential info'' out of the way, in the shortest space possible.
Sometimes a header of a memo will get comically long and make it very difficult to read the header is often not very important so you'll want to minimise the amount of space the header takes up such as this you see how even in this tiny title header it says who it's from it's for.
And what they want done remember that a lot of people open their messages and email on different devices such as tablets and phones and if your header is too long they have to scroll a significant amount to see the real meat of the memo.
3. Your memo should convey all the information in the smallest amount of text possible.
If you followed memo tip no. one then you know the exact action you want taken by the readers of your memo get to this action part fats as possible there's no need to drag out the memo add unnecessary commentary or use large words to appear smart just get straight to the point if you're feeling smart aleck Eeyore adventurous feel free to use an image like this.
Who says well-crafted memos can't be fun also memo tip no four.
4. Repeat and bold the action people should take at the end (in one sentence).
Make sure you reiterate exactly what you need from people at the end of the memo just like this says what I need from everyone email me your favourite type of cake by 5:00 p.m today simply stating what you need from people at the end will dramatically increase how many people take the action and just make it easier for everyone involved.
5. If action doesn't need to be taken, then tell them.
Let''s save a massive amount of time for everyone if something needs no action just it at the end of your memo just write at the end no action required those three simple words let everyone know there's nothing further they have to do so let's take a quick look of some good memos and bad memos so here is an example of a great memo.
And the characteristics it has is the very first section reminds them what action to take the main message is super short and to the point and the very last section reminds them action to take again.
This is a great memo because in a very short amount of time it let's people know exactly what they need to do and when they need to do it by now here's an example of a bad memo it's got a super long header it speaks in a very corporate set own which bores people it's got a super long body of text that's hard to read it's got a lot of unnecessary meandering details.
The main point of the memo is not immediately obvious when you look at it and the last section does not restate the action people need to take so they've got to hunt down what they have to do so let's go over a quick checklist of what will make a good memo I make sure the action you're requesting is worthy of an entire memo to give a one-sentence explanation of the memo in the header shorter equals better 3 get to the point right away.
reread your memo and eliminate needless chatter for the last part of the memo should say exactly what action you want people to take by following this quick checklist you could turn a long and boring memo into a quick and effective memo so remember my friend only you can prevent terrible memos.
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