Building a Writing Culture

This is part of the Building a Writing Culture Series.

How do you start building a writing culture?

In writing about what I’ve learned about writing at Amazon, I’ve been thinking a lot about how you would go about building a writing culture at your own company. This is the first of a series of blogs I plan on writing, looking at how Amazon got started and how they refined their approach to a point that they could “never go back to PowerPoint”. (We covered this in a previous blog; Writing a narrative is better than PowerPoint).

How did Amazon start?

I love reading the Amazon shareholder letters, and always wait with anticipation for what topic Jeff Bezos will have honed in on. He can literally write about anything, and previous letters have focused on AWS, Alexa, Kindle, and other huge innovations. In the 2017 letter, Jeff wrote about writing. I was literally beside myself! It remains my favourite Amazon shareholder letter. It talks about the writing culture, especially the six-page narratives.

Jeff wrote, “We don’t do PowerPoint presentations at Amazon. Instead, we write narratively structured six-page memos. Not surprisingly, the quality of these memos varies widely. 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.”

I’d heard that this wasn’t always the case, in fact there are several urban myths about why and how Amazon banned PowerPoint and started the writing revolution. One such legend details how, after a presentation, Jeff Bezos asked to see the presenter notes. The presenters didn’t really want to share them, but Jeff was adamant he needed to see the data hidden within the speaker notes to make the best decision.

How to start building a writing culture

Writing was officially indoctrinated into Amazon in 2004 as the way to make decisions. According to the book “Working Backwards” by Colin Bryar & Bill Carr, PowerPoint was banned after one particular round of fruitless leadership meetings. Jeff said, “Let’s stop doing PowerPoints... It’s the wrong tool for what we’re trying to do, let’s switch over to narratives.”

Over time the Amazon writing style has been honed. Amazon realised they needed to hone the process and develop writing skills across their workforce. Over time, people got better, the docs got slicker, and they generated better discussions. Narratives started to shift the focus to ideas being surfaced, and they found that great thinkers were writing the best narratives.

Writing is a thinking exercise. Amazon narratives are evidence based. They take a lot longer to prepare than presentations because of the thought process. There is a need for clarity and succinctness, which also takes time. A well written six-page narrative will shape your idea into a story that will generate discussion and ultimately a decision.

I learned recently that when the idea for AWS (Amazon Web Services), Amazon’s cloud computing business, was first imagined, the team spent 18 months writing about the idea. 18 months without a line of code written. 18 months shaping the idea and the customer experience. That is quite the investment, but 18 months spent planning created the foundation for AWS to become the fastest company to reach $100 million in revenue!

Writing is just how Amazon does things now

When I joined Amazon in 2014, 10 years after the first narratives were written, it was very much accepted as the way “we do business”. Meetings begin with document reads. These documents are discussed. Decisions are made, within the 60 minute meeting. Work continues. There were long-tenured Amazonians who would take newbies under their wing to teach them how to write good docs, and skills were passed down.

If you are just starting out, start small. Start in a single team, test the concept. Pivot, learn, and build the skills. Then grow from there. Create guides and resources people can use to get started. Make it part of your learning culture to practise writing. Build a following through success. Be kind in reviews, and make sure discussion focuses on the idea, not the writing style the author has used. Talk about these meetings to anyone that will listen. Focus on what has happened as a result of starting the discussion around a document.

Are you Ready to stop wasting time & money?

If you have enjoyed reading this, why not buy me a coffee to fuel future blogs :)