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AFS - if I do my self input on my FY22 goals and submit to manager for a review this week since my project ended, what do I do in May when I have a different project? Will the same fy22 form get submitted with me adding more self input to it or do I make a different copy of that original form and reconcile somehow?Accenture
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Great tool I used in my paralegal days when communicating information to a partner. Get to the point at the very beginning, then explain your rationale in bullet points right below it. Example:
“Short answer is no, and I’ll explain why.
[bullet points]
Let me know if you have any questions/would like to jump on a call.
Best,
[Name]”
This is 100% a great way to do this. I started doing this in private practice and when I went in-house I found it was highly effective at getting quick responses from execs too.
Start with conclusion / TLDR line first, then provide details below, with clearly labeled intros or subsections, so your senior can at a glance get the bottom line and also quickly navigate to any additional details or references below.
It also helps to read as if a super junior person is your actual target audience. Simple to the point sentences, if your mom can’t understand it, then simplify/shorten. That’s the highest level of mastery, distilling a complicated long winded concept into a simple concise form, comes with experience!!
Great answer.
Ask chatgpt to condense to a paragraph
Ya, you can’t. There’s an “incognito”/privacy setting on ChatGPT now, but hard to say how effective it is at the moment.
I write what I want then try to reduce it by half - kind of thinking of it like bullet pointing. And I wouldn’t underestimate the value of going short and including something like “I’m happy to fill you in on more detail.”
Get so busy that you can only stay above water by responding as quickly as possible in stream of conscious thought. Should make you partner quick.
I agree with using AI. I do it often, but also ensure I remove all confidential information and anything remotely identifiable. Then I tell it to condense or reduce prose.
When I was in-house, we were required to do an exec summary first and details below—use bullets; bold and highlight key concepts; add next steps. In subject line put “Action Required” or other clear message.
Then, you had to email the exec summary to yourself first to make sure it would fit on the cell phone screen without scrolling.
Put yourself in the other person’s shoes. They’re busy. They’re getting 250 plus emails a day. They don’t have time, and they don’t care about the details unless that would change the answer or unless they’re not sure you did a thorough search. To counteract that, you could say, I checked these places or considered ABC, let me know if you’d like more details.
You can add a short section about “Assumptions” or say the answer might be different if XYZ.
The person you’re emailing may have to pass the info on to someone else. Bonus points if you make it easy to do that.
It takes a long time to write something short and readable, which is why I’m not following my own advice.
After you’re done with the substance, go to the top and think “if the recipient was going to forward this to her boss, what would she says the takeaway and next steps are?”
Use less words.
Following since I also work with a senior who is like this!
I like concise answers, but I also need to know you did the work. Give the conclusion first and then go into the rationale. I also love bullets and headings. Pretend you are sending it to a client, that also helps.
Focus more on the stuff that matters and what the actual answer is. You can bring up the rationale when there is a need to aay so. One trick that I use is to have less technical jargon and say it in simple terms. Treat it like you will need to shell out 100 dollars per word if you write too much.