A memo framework that separates what you've done, what you know, what you think, and what you recommend next. The four sections force you to distinguish facts from opinions and prevent jumping to solutions before understanding the problem.
At one of my companies, I created a standard for how to communicate with customers I've used ever since. We call it the 1-2-3-4. It contains 4 sections to an email or missive or memo that you're going to write, and I find to be super helpful to making sure that you're giving the best thought to whatever the client's issue happens to be. And those 4 parts are: Number 1, what have I done coming into this? Like, what are the actions that I've taken to put into the world and give some, like, you know, that I've made an impact. Second is, what do I know? What are facts that I can bring in, including things I've heard other people say, but they're completely separate from my opinions, because that's the third part. What do I think? And that's going to be, you know, the opinions I have about the situation that are what I think might be cause and effect relationships with the data I recommend, which is going to be the policy that you think should be coming out of this. That way you don't just say turn off and turn on again. You're going to say, what are the steps that actually led me there? I find that when you do that, you're able to really ground yourself and get great critical thinking.
