When a Senior Person Will Not Read It
A senior stakeholder won't read the doc. Three reasons — no time, no trust, no incentive — each with its own repair, and the paragraph that fits in a message.
Distribution
Asking for a Reply by Thursday
Asking for feedback by a deadline only works if something happens when it passes. The ask sentence, four worked versions, and what silence is allowed to mean.
The Pre-Read That Actually Gets Read
A meeting pre-read short enough that people finish it, the version for a team that will not read in the room, and the one that failed at eleven pages.
Nobody Read Your Document: A Recovery Procedure
Nobody read your document. Four diagnoses, the exact re-send message for each, and the one case where getting people to read it will not help.
Status Updates Nobody Reads: Four Reasons, Four Fixes
Four diagnostic questions for an update that gets ignored, with the specific repair for each — and the fourth reason, which no rewrite will fix.