One worth sharing
How to Write Better Emails at Work (YouTube)
One of my favorite trainings when I was at Google was a 90-minute session on writing better emails. I had no idea how much I needed it, and it quickly became one of the most popular trainings across the company.
This short HBR video, How to Write Better Emails at Work (YouTube), covers many of the same principles in just seven minutes.
Don’t skip this one. One viewer summed it up perfectly in their comment: “I almost rolled my eyes at this, thinking I didn't need to listen because I'm a solid email-writer.... but this man just blew my mind! I'm humbled!”
This video should be required viewing for every employee.
QUICK TIP
I’m in the middle of finalizing a workshop for a Fortune 500 HR team on how to influence decisions, and there’s one idea I’m particularly excited to cover. It’s simple, but makes a huge impact:
Your recommendations need to be painkillers, not vitamins.
A vitamin talks about a possible improvement.
A painkiller relieves the existing pain.
Most analysts unintentionally offer vitamins. A vitamin recommendation sounds like: “If we do X, things might get a bit better.” It’s well-reasoned, but not urgent. Vitamins get labeled as “interesting” or “worth exploring when we have time.”
And in every organization I’ve worked with, there is never time.
Painkillers are different. A painkiller recommendation says, “If we do X, we can stop something that’s already hurting us.” It solves a problem costing time, money, morale, or credibility right now. Painkillers get attention because they ease pressure that’s already building.
And here's the important part: The underlying analysis can be exactly the same. It’s the framing of the recommendation that changes everything.
Vitamins vs. Painkillers
Think about typical “vitamin” recommendations:
“If we improve our onboarding flow, we could increase satisfaction by 2%.”
“If we invest in manager training, we could reduce turnover by two percentage points.”
“If we add one support specialist, we could improve response time by five minutes.”
“If we optimize campaign targeting, we could reduce acquisition cost by 3%.”
They’re accurate, even helpful. But they’re also fairly generic and easy to postpone.
Now compare those to “painkiller” recommendations:
“If we fix the onboarding bottleneck, we can get new hires productive two weeks faster, easing the workload on managers who are already stretched.”
“If we invest in manager training, we can stop losing high-performers in their first 90 days, a pattern that’s driving long backfill times and constant understaffing.”
“If we add one support specialist, we can prevent customer wait times from spilling into a second day, a key driver of lost customers.”
“If we optimize campaign targeting, we can stop overspending by $600K each quarter, money we’re currently wasting on customers who never convert.”
See the difference? The stakes just got much higher.
How to be a painkiller
Ask yourself three questions the next time you frame a recommendation:
Who is experiencing pain right now? A team? A leader? A customer?
What pressure is that pain creating? Lost time, lost dollars, delayed decisions, customer churn, team burnout…
What gets worse if nothing changes? This is where urgency comes in.
These three questions are what turn a perfectly good idea into something people actually act on.
Cheers,
Morgan
P.S. I was not expecting yesterday’s LinkedIn post to take off the way it did. I’m so glad I’m not alone in my frustration 😆
P.P.S. You may have noticed I’ve (temporarily!) taken down my data viz course, Story-Driven Charts. I’ll be relaunching it in January — stay tuned for updates!