We are a training company specializing in virtual communications. We tell everyone they should have a communication plan that includes things like you have here.

What the team comes up with is their own business, but we do offer them a sample of communication norms for email.

Here’s what we include in that sample that you don’t have here.

1. Create a responsiveness norm for the team. We suggest one day unless the document asks for a later date. If you don’t have this it is really easy to break trust.

2. If action is requested or required, list the individual under “to.” If no action is required, that individual should be listed on “cc.”

3. Action requests should come in the first paragraph (a lot of people read only this far and miss that you need them to do something).

4. We agree with you on your first point about space. The way we say it is, “Emails will be no longer than one page. If you can’t say what you need to say in that space, you haven’t thought about it enough.”

5. Cover only one topic per email.

6. Provide easy follow up information.

Jim Kutsko
Bridge the Distance