# Thinking, writing, and business By:: [[Brian Heath]] 2022-08-19 It is said that writing is thinking and I find that when I take the time to write things down that new and clearer ideas emerge. So, over the last few years with COVID forcing remote work for nearly every office worker, I’ve been curious what work would look like if it was all written in narrative form. Instead of a meeting to think and talk about an idea, what if everyone just wrote about it? If you are followers of the folks at [Basecamp](https://basecamp.com/), you’ll know that they operate in a fully remote environment and work almost exclusively via written narratives ([[How Basecamp Communicates Internally]]). Meetings are really the last resort for them. So if it works at one remote workplace place, then we have reason to believe it could work elsewhere and since everyone is working in a new environment, why not try something new? Whenever I’ve brought up the idea of using written narratives versus endless meetings, I regularly get blank stares or skepticism. It’s almost like their internal dialogue is saying “writing has no place in business.” Obviously this is wrong in the literal sense. One only has to look in their email inbox or the poorly constructed PowerPoint slides to see that words are indeed still being written in businesses. But I think this is all mindless chatter and rarely are coherent thoughts being exchanged. This is why nearly every business colleague I talk to about this thinks I’m crazy because words aren’t how ideas are exchanged in business. Businesses are all about meetings where the loudest, quickest, and powerful sway the masses in a disguise of collaborative brainstorming. Certainly ideas and thoughts can happen when people meet, but the most coherent nuggets of [[wisdom]] often come from something that is written as our thoughts and brain are entirely engrossed in the words that constrain our understanding of things. I suspect what is really going on inside the business person’s head when I advocate for writing narratives is “thinking has no place in business.” One argument I’ve heard is that relying on written narratives excludes those with disabilities and different ways of processing [[information]]. I certainly recognize and agree with these challenges. When it is possible, we should do everything to provide accommodations as [[diversity]] is how we learn, adapt, and grow. However, what I’m advocating here is thinking, and it so happens that writing is great at generating and communicating thoughts. On the flip side, I could make the same [[critique]] about meetings excluding those with disabilities and different ways of processing information. Except you also need to layer on the complex social dynamics and [[power]] hierarchies that will inevitably emerge from meetings. Even an anonymous, well-written idea can [[Change]] the world. Show me a meeting that can achieve the same thing. Bottom line: Write more, think more, and meet less. #### Related Items [[Remote Work]] [[Business]] [[Thinking]] [[Writing]] [[Meetings]]