Send It — Or Rewrite It First?

You are about to send an important internal message. Work through the steps before you hit send.

Your real scenario

Describe a message you need to send at work this week — or have recently sent. Name the receiver, the topic, and what you need to happen as a result.

Place the relationship

Where does this receiver sit relative to you? Mark your position on each axis.

Close colleague

Formal senior

Choose the channel

Sort your options into the right zone. Which channel is actually correct for this message and this relationship?

Right channel

Wrong channel

What you must not say

List two phrases, words, or tones you must avoid in this specific message — and write one word beside each explaining why.

Urgency level

Mark how urgent this message genuinely is — then mark how urgent your draft currently sounds. Are they the same?

Low urgency

High urgency

Draft the opening two sentences

Write only the first two sentences of your message here, using the register and channel you chose in steps 2 and 3. Look back at step 4 — do your draft sentences avoid those banned phrases?

The one word that fixes it

If you had to swap one single word in your draft to shift the register, urgency, or authority to exactly the right level — what would that word be, and why does it matter more than any other change?

Why that word?

Discuss Share your opening two sentences with a partner — would they reply, escalate, or ignore it?

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