We must stop constantly lowering the bar. Let them learn to write, or don't hire them in the first place. Communication skill is a good hiring criterion.
That’s much easier said if you work for a startup.
But if you work for either a large organization or a company that’s been around for decades, you influencing that kind of change (across departments you don’t own) is virtually impossible unless you’re the CEO. And even then, extremely difficult.
If a company as big as Amazon can pull off mandating writing standards so can yours. I understand that many companies just don't care. They tend to be run by steward CEOs and mercenary managers. I simply avoid them.
Bezos pulled it off by starting that practice from immediate onset of founding his company (hence my startup comment).
It’s not like 20-years into Amazon, he then decide to implement that practice.
Also, people misconstrue Amazon as being an async culture.
That’s incorrect.
Amazon is actually an anti-PowerPoint culture. So when meetings need to happen, you need to convey your info in long form writing since PPT isn’t allowed. That doesn’t mean the culture is async.
I did not say it was async, I said they were expected to write well. I don't think it matters when the practice is introduced. If the CEO mandates it that is all it takes.
At least in my experience, people who are bad at written communication are bad at communicating, period. The saving grace of spoken communication is that you can quickly see the lacking information and immediately ask for details, instead of going back and forth via email or other async medium.
