> But I have a fear. What if nobody bothers to read it?
This is definitely a big problem, especially in cases when reporting up the chain of command or sideways (to colleagues or other teams).
People don't read.
A big part of the reason seems to be the low expectation of value from any text. Since most writing is not well organized and rambly, people just assume it's not worth reading. And to be honest, they would be right most of the time... except when they are not.
The problem is the well thought out email that summarizes all the info about the project from past meetings that took a day to prepare, contains all the important links to documents, and describes a well thought out strategy for next steps will get just as much attention as the average non-consequential email of the same length.
Sometimes I think we need to have color coding for the hours that went into writing a piece of text, e.g. a paragraph showing in dark font indicates many hours and synthesis went into producing it (including decisions, consultations, planning, feasibility, etc), vs. a light gray text that is just a random suggestion. Such a color coding might help signal to the non-reader crowd (most people) that something is worth reading... something like nutritional facts.
This is definitely a big problem, especially in cases when reporting up the chain of command or sideways (to colleagues or other teams).
People don't read.
A big part of the reason seems to be the low expectation of value from any text. Since most writing is not well organized and rambly, people just assume it's not worth reading. And to be honest, they would be right most of the time... except when they are not.
The problem is the well thought out email that summarizes all the info about the project from past meetings that took a day to prepare, contains all the important links to documents, and describes a well thought out strategy for next steps will get just as much attention as the average non-consequential email of the same length.
Sometimes I think we need to have color coding for the hours that went into writing a piece of text, e.g. a paragraph showing in dark font indicates many hours and synthesis went into producing it (including decisions, consultations, planning, feasibility, etc), vs. a light gray text that is just a random suggestion. Such a color coding might help signal to the non-reader crowd (most people) that something is worth reading... something like nutritional facts.