When you complete a project with hands-on effort, people respect the outcome, value it. A fresh tomato picked from your garden, the warmth of a scarf hand-knit, the personality of hand-written thank you note. We appreciate those things more than factory made and store-bought items.

Now let’s consider communication and its evolution. Before the printing press, sharing ideas and information required serious effort. Writers gave great thought to the content they were sharing, in part due to the difficulty of sharing it. (That doesn’t mean communication was always good, just that the onerous process required a commitment.)

These days, we 💩 out misspelled messages with our thumbs. We share countless pics of the napping 🐕 that is exhausted from some super-cute tail chasing. And we post emotional recaps of tremendous 🌮.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that …

I’ve Seen The Problem …

I don’t blame the new tools, but I am concerned with how and why we use them. It’s not about AI or emojis or texting or Tik Tok or GIFs. None of those things are inherently bad for communication. They all, in fact, can improve communication.

But they don’t. Not most of them time.

… And It Is Us

They make us faster communicators. They expand our reach. They make us louder or cuter or trendier. But do they make us clearer? Do they improve understanding? Clarity must be the goal of all business communication. (I’m not talking about comedy writing or TV scripts; this is about business.)

Here is what you should do and not do to communicate clearly today.

Be Clear

Compose every email, text message, and blog post with a reader in mind. When you write to someone (even an imaginary someone), you are more likely to write for understanding, and not just to write something that’s on your mind. Ask yourself: Is my reader going to grasp what I’m trying to say? Did I tell them why I’m writing, and what I hope they’ll do?

Your communication method is ultra-important. Use text messaging with people who are regular texters. I’m not much of a texter, so if you text something important to me, I might not see it for a couple days. It’s not about what works for you. It’s about what enables your audience to understand what you’re trying to say. I like to mail hand-written thank you cards after meetings, but people aren’t in the office as much, and I’m not always comfortable asking for someone’s home address. So, I need to change that method.

Don’t Be Boring

Being “clear” doesn’t have to be boring. You can be emotional, or funny, or prideful, or opinionated, or spiritual. As long as you’re clear. In fact, when you write with any personal passion, you are more likely to connect with readers. An audience will know you’re real and that you care. You might upset some people too. That’s fine. It probably means you were understood.

Be Current

The Unicode Consortium quantifies more than 3,500 emoji today 🤪. Unicode (and I just want to call it Unicorn) is the standards body for emoji and other digital services. Emoji are (and, yes, the correct plural is “emoji”) gaining prominence in the business world. I see them used in LinkedIn posts regularly. When you use an emoji to support the words you write, the little icon can add a modern touch and a bit of personality – that’s good.

But Be Careful

If you expect the emoji to do more work, be careful. First, emoji can have multiple meanings to different people, and I’m not even going to mention any specific fruit here. Second, an emoji might not appear the same from one device to the next. Third, emoji use can have troubling legal implications. “A U.S. judge has ruled that former Bed Bath & Beyond investor Ryan Cohen can be sued by investors over a tweet he posted featuring an emoji that seemed to indicate an endorsement of the home goods retailer before it declared bankruptcy earlier this year,” NBC News reported in July. Other instances of emoji interpretation have led to legal battles. Sure, words can be misunderstood too. Just know that those little pictures are inherently ambiguous, as argued by investor Ryan Cohen, whose smiling moon emoji 🌝 tweet brought on the lawsuit against him.

Be Human

This seems like a ridiculous reminder, but it’s not. It’s a not-so-subtle shot at the rising trend of non-human writing today. It’s early, and my opinion might change, but I’m no fan of artificial intelligence (AI) as a writing tool. I know the tool can be a time saver and starting point for those uncomfortable as writers. But all communication should start and finish with distinctly human input. You’re not expected to be Hemingway, Shakespeare, or Morrison. You are supposed to be yourself and write-fully so. 👍🏼

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