The Extremely Clear Written Communication Principles

Part #0 Ini apa? Untuk siapa? And kenapa even worth the time buat dibaca?

Over the past 10 years, I’ve been working with multiple organizations yang isinya people from different seniorities, different nationalities and different age groups.

The past 10 years, tanpa disadarin I’ve learned and sharpen one of the technical skills that right now helped me a lot in working and collaborating with people.

Kalau dulu this technical skill ini secara ga sadar dipelajarin and dimantepin, this time I intentionally use this and continuously terus sharpen this skill.

Dan skill ini bernama:

The Extremely Clear Written Communication ✍️ 

This short essay will benefits kita yang sekarang kerja and require us buat regular basis ngobrol sama orang using written format (WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Lark, Email, Direct Message, dan platform lain).

In this essay ada beberapa questions that I’m interested to explore more, each questions akan menjadi satu section. So bisa lompat-lompat bacanya depending on your needs. Here are the questions:

1. The origin of written communication: When do human being first start doing this and why it exist and the transformation?

2. What is the definition of written communication in business context and why it exist?

3. What makes this hard and what are the common issues?

4. What are the key principles that will help us significantly improve our written communication across various platforms? How does the implementation of these principles looks like?

Readyyy? Let’s start the learning journey now!

Part #1 The Origin & Transformation of Written Communication

For this section, you might want to do your own research so you can get better understanding. But for this purpose, I’ll sharing some findings from my research when I need to deliver the workshop di IdeaFest 2026 in collaboration with T&DON on “How To Write Faster”.

Jadi the oversimplified origin of written communication itu awal-awalnya banget gini:

#1 Around 3200 BCE, the Sumerians in Mesopotamia began writing things down to remember and document. They recorded grain harvests, livestock, worker rations, inventories, trade, taxes, and other information needed to run a growing civilization.

#2 Trus lanjut ke From 3000–196 BCE, the ancient Egyptians used writing to preserve knowledge across generations. They preserved language, medicine, mathematics, religion, literature, and historical records so knowledge could be shared across generations

#3 After that From the Renaissance to the Modern Era, scientists wrote to explore ideas and improve understanding. They used writing to organize observations, challenge assumptions, connect ideas, and discover insights they couldn’t see by thinking alone.

Fast forward ke hari ini, written communication ini masih terus ada dengan format and also platform yang keep evolving. Sekarang ada different bahasa pemrograman. Ada different technology yang kita bisa use to “Write” something, such as messaging app and also different note taking tool.

So long story short, Written Communication ini something yang udah ada dari dulu and till today still exist. As for today [21/9/2026], I have a feeling kalau “Written Communication” will remain exist untuk jadi ways of communication human being, yang format and platformnya akan terus evolve. But the soul will remain the same.

Part #2 Written Communication in Business Context

Now kalau kita tarik Written Communication ke context business ini dipakainya buat apa aja and di mana aja?

Here are some categorization from the pattern I’ve seen and experienced so far:

#1 To Document, Preserve, and Transfer Knowledge

In the business context, most of the organization use written communication untuk bisa mendokumentasikan and transfer the information to people.

This is especially penting ketika organization-nya udah besar (Example having more people, working from different place, even different time frame).

The key goal here is to make sure everyone in the organization (Existing & New) bisa punya same understanding about sesuatu and can easily go to that place whenever needed.

People can have the same understanding soal: What something means? Where do we want to go? Why we want to go? What has been agreed, Who is responsible?, and what success looks like?

The easiest way to test adalah just to ask different people about the same question and see whether their explanation about something is the same or different.

For example: “Do people in different team, in different seniority have the same definition and understanding about what is the USP of the product we are offering to the market now?”

If the answer is still no, that’s why it’s important to have this to be written.

What are the specific and real written communication format example here?

1. OKRs (Objectives and Key Results)

2. SOP or FAQs

3. Company Policies

4. Knowledge Base or Internal Wikis

5. Meeting & Discussion Summary

#2 To Trigger Action & Enable Decisions

One of the most valuable and important role in written communication is to trigger some actions and to help people make decision. Karena at the end of the day value is created by doing and moving not just ideating and thinking.

So di sini as professional at any seniority (But become more crucial and important the more senior we are) is to understand that the quality of our written communication berbanding lurus dengan the quality of action taken by the people yang kita karja bareng.

This mean, if we are able to be extremely clear in our written communication, we significantly the probability untuk action to be made di our team or company. Dan sebaliknya, if kita ngerasa kenapa di our team or company, action feels so slow, this could mean kitanya yang gagal untuk communicate things clearly written.

The example of written communication act di sini adalah:

1. Sending email that contain list of things that different people need to do

2. A slack message requesting our peers to support some task

3. A WhatsApp message informing our boss that we need approval for the project

#3 To Build Long Lasting Trust & Relationship

The other areas that can be significantly improved if we level up our written communication skill is kita bisa build faster and more long lasting trust with people around us.

This is naturally happened karena in the world that is super stressful and complicated now, being able to communicate things written clearly = make the recipients of our message life easier. And I strongly believe we love people who can make our life easier.

Some examples of action here:

1. Sending an appreciation or praise to people that has been doing great job or helping us in particular project.

2. Being direct + kind when giving feedback or improvement notes to our team, peers, or even boss.

3. Sharing observation notes from the meeting we were in, and ada suggested action items di dalamnya.

Part #3 What makes it hard and the common challenges?

Beberapa alasan yang bikin Written Communication susah berdasarkan pengalaman and experimentation:

#1 Writing is Not Natural

In short, written communication is harder VS verbal communication because it’s just not natural for human being to do. In verbal communication, secara fisiologi kita punya “mulut” yang by default bisa kita manfaatkan untuk berbicara.

Tapi in written communication, ada banyak process yang harus kita lakuin mulai dari processing the information in our brain, and documenting the learnings and understanding into written format (Digitally or Physically). This is why most of us prefer to just talk rather than menuliskan yang ada di kepala kita.

#2 We Might Think We Understand Something Until We Write it Down

A beautiful Quote here:

Writing down what we mean so hard, karena most of the time (kalau kita bisa lebih humble and menerima) bahwa kita sebenernya ga ngerti apa yang sebenernya kita pikirin.

We don’t really know what we want and what we mean. So waktu diminta untuk menuliskan sesuatu, kita kesulitan. This is the most fundamental issues when it comes to written communication.

#3 Egoistic & Narcissistic As a Human Nature

By nature as human being kita bakal selalu fokus ke diri sendiri. But what does the connection of this ke written communication? The answer is banyak.

Let me share below some real examples:

1. Little to Zero Context Message: Sering kita sending message ke orang lain without giving additional context. Resulting in longer communication cycle and high chance terjadinya miscommunication.

2. Too Long or Too Little Message: We might prefer certain length message, some of us prefer long detailed, some of us prefer short and sweet. This personal preference biasanya kita pukul rata buat ke semua orang.

3. Trying To Sound and Look Smart: The effect here adalah akhirnya we are using terms that is extremely hard to understand (even sometimes kita juga ga paham itu artinya apa).

Understanding why it’s hard can act as a guardrail waktu kita mau exercise our Written Communication approach using some first principles yang I’ll be sharing di bawah.

Part #4 The Extreme Written Communication Principles

Now come to the part yang akan kita buat lebih “membumi”. Part yang isinya penjelasan soal how can we do better now now? Gimana caranya kita bisa bikin our written communication jadi extremely clear?

Based on my experiment and also experience ada hal yang can help to level up our written communication. In general I split it into 3 main categories. Let me share it all below:

1. Content

2. Structure

3. Formatting

Let’s deep dive into it one by one! 👇️ 

#1 Content

The first homework for us who wants to communicate something in a written format is to really understand (I mean really understand not only feel that we understand) on what message and information that we are trying to send to other people.

To test our understanding, answer these question in written format (bukan cuma di kepala):

1. What is the main message we are trying to send ke orang lain?

2. What do we want people do after they read our message?

3. What do we want people feel after they read our message?

Write down the answer of those questions, and read it out loud.

NOTE: The more we do this, the more we need to do every single thing in detailed. But assuming we are in the journey of improvement, it’s very important to do everything shared here.

Mari kita cek-cek example biar lebih mudah ngertinya:

• Context: Kita mau kirim info ke team kalau akan ada perubahan jadwal Work from Office starting next week.

• The Message Content: “With this message I want to inform my team kalau kita akan move from full WFH to 3 days per week WFO. I want them to read the message and list down their questions and concern. Lastly I want them to feel that this decision is something that is fair for them, and also accept this even tho this might be hard for some”

This message content that I sent above is not to be shared ke orang lain, but to be consumed ke diri sendiri biar kita beneran paham kita mau send written communication message apa ke orang lain.

#2 Structure

Structure is where banyak dari kita suka kelupaan and suka akhirnya bikin our message yang harusnya clear jadi ga clear.

No matter the platform we are using, and also the written communication we are making, the structure can bisa dibagi jadi 3 simple bagian:

1. Opening: Message ini dari siapa? Tentang apa? Kenapa penting? Latar belakangnya apa?

2. Main Message: Apa key message yang mau disampaikan? To inform? To trigger action? Read again part “#1 Content” di atas.

3. Closing: Di akhir message kita mau orang melakukan apa? What do we want them to do? Call To Action.

Let me give you some examples The Bad and The Great One:

Example 1: Asking Team To Read Email Announcement We Just Sent

Example 2: Asking People To Come To Office Tomorrow For A Sudden Project Meeting

#3 Formatting

Once the key message is clear, the structure is mantep, the last but not least part yang harus dipastikan mantep juga in written communication adalah “Formatting”. We need to make our written communication “beautiful” supaya siapa pun yang baca bisa enjoy the process or reading it, and bisa menerima dengan jelas pesan yang ingin kita sampaikan!

Ada beberapa elements yang bisa kita pelajarin to level up our written communication here:

1. Spacing: Jarak antara satu kalimat dengan kalimat lainnya. Antar satu paragraf dengan paragraf lain.

2. Tanda Baca: Titik, Koma, Tanda Tanya, Tanda Seru dst.

3. Emoji: Untuk menekankan emosi!

Mari kita langsung cek 3 contoh di bawah!

Example 1: Communicating Our Longest-Serving Team Member Who Is Resigning

Example 2: Communicating New Learning & Development Benefits To Buy Books

Example 3: Communicating New OKRs Direction

That’s all what I can share soal The Extreme Written Communication Principles! Hope ada yang bisa langsung dicontek and dicobain approach di atas ya!

Enjoy the slow learning today! 🍃