Improving Communication — Read More, Write More

Communication is how ideas move through the world — and through organisations. Between intention and outcome sits communication.

In the workplace, communication is often treated as a presentation skill or a meeting skill.

In reality, it is a daily practice
— shaped less by singular performance and more by habits of attention, vocabulary, and clarity of thought.

Two low-barrier practices quietly strengthen communication over time: reading and writing.

Cultivated Notes are short visual companions to the work.
Some are reflective, others are practical.
You can watch the note below, or read on to explore this idea.

Reading — Expanding the Range of Expression

When we read, we encounter more than vocabulary and words.
We encounter expression. We encounter somebody's thinking translated into words.

Different authors use different rhythms, structures, and vocabularies to convey meaning – to express what they are thinking, what they feel and what they want us to understand.

Exposure to varied styles expands the range of words and sentence patterns available to us when we speak or write. This is not about sounding complex, or copying other people; it is about having sufficient linguistic tools to match the nuance of an idea and how we wish to express it.

We see how others have used words, paragraphs, style and clarity to convey emotions, meaning and intent.

Diversity of material matters more than category.
Fiction, essays, design, philosophy, biography — each reveals a different way of assembling meaning.

The benefit is cumulative rather than immediate. Vocabulary grows gradually; phrasing becomes more natural; clarity becomes easier to access. We ease into our own style by finding what resonates.

Readers are not just effective communicators because they consume more information.
They are effective because they have observed more ways to express it.

Writing — Slowing the Mind

Writing performs a different function.
Where reading expands input, writing refines output.

To write is to slow down. To think.
The act of forming sentences forces thought to become clearer and more deliberate. Ambiguity becomes visible on the page. Weak phrasing reveals itself. Ideas either hold together or fall apart under their own weight.

Speed is not the objective.
In many cases, the slower the medium, the clearer the thinking. Handwritten notes, journals, or even deliberate drafting on a typewriter can produce more precise language simply because they resist speed and haste. You must slow down – to think and to capture your thoughts on paper.

The purpose is not publication.
Most writing that improves communication is private: notebooks, drafts, reflections, sketches of thought. The value lies in the act of articulation rather than the artefact itself.

Low Barrier, Long Arc

Neither of these practices requires specialised tools.
A library card, a modest book collection, or a simple notebook are sufficient.

Communication rarely improves through occasional effort.
It improves through repetition
— exposure to well-formed language and regular attempts to express one’s own thinking with care in the written form.

Over time, reading widens the palette.
Writing sharpens the brush.

And effective communication is the result.