Many organizations have hired a content manager or director, or chief storyteller, or chief content officer. But how can content leaders champion a more content-oriented company culture so that everybody on their team writes?
I got this question recently. Let me paraphrase what that question-asker was really asking: How can you get busy coworkers (or lazy slackers—ha!) to write for the company blog?
But I think the question could be broader than that—or should be. Because creating a culture of writing doesn’t mean simply producing more blog fodder. It also means creating a culture of more efficient and effective communication. And, ultimately, a writing culture develops more leaders.
“Business leadership is a lot about communications. People really stand out if they are articulate, if they can actually write sentences and get them presented properly,” says Paul Danos, Dean of the Tuck School of Business.
Becoming a better writer means becoming a better thinker.
As I talk about in Everybody Writes, writing with a narrative structure pushes you to think through problems and develop your ideas.
“Good writing…is a matter of developing the skills of intuitive psychology that are so important in every other aspect of social life: getting inside the heads of other people so that you can respect their needs and their wants,” says psychologist Steven Pinker.
In other words, it’s the key to a customer-centric, intuitive, empathic point of view. Which, by the way, is what the best marketers need to have, too.
Why should you care? What’s that means for you? Two things:
1. Everyone is a writer. Good writing isn’t merely any-old tool. It’s a power tool we should be able to wield expertly, just as every respectable building contractor can use the Skilsaw he keeps in his truck.
2. If you want to be a so-called thought leader in your industry, you need to write. Said another way:
