Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has some tips on crafting the perfect memo, which he broke down in his annual letter to shareholders.
At the online giant, memos must be six pages and “narratively structured.” These memos never contain individual authors’ names, only the name of the team.
Bezos said that, at the start of meetings, teams will silently read through memos as part of a “study hall.”
“Not surprisingly, the quality of these memos varies widely,” he wrote. “Some have the clarity of angels singing. They are brilliant and thoughtful and set up the meeting for high-quality discussion. Sometimes they come in at the other end of the spectrum.”
The rules on memos aren’t the only workplace practices that Amazon holds employees to. PowerPoint and other slide-show presentations — along with most overly large meetings— are banned at the company.
But what’s the key difference between a heavenly memo and an infernal one in the Amazon CEO’s mind?
The answer is simple: time.
Bezos wrote that you just can’t crank out a great memo in a day. In fact, he suggested that some might require a week to get right.
“The great memos are written and rewritten, shared with colleagues who are asked to improve the work, set aside for a couple of days, and then edited again with a fresh mind,” he wrote.
Bezos added that giving yourself enough time eclipses actual writing skills when it comes to memos.
“The football coach doesn’t need to be able to throw and a film director doesn’t need to be able to act,” he wrote. “But they both do need to recognize high standards for those things and teach realistic expectations on scope.”
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