I was advising a young employee today on ways they could keep their boss and colleagues apprised of meetings they go to and files they work on. I recalled an email bulletin I produced at one point in my career that was clear, concise and pertinent to my audience and distributed consistently at the end of each week. Some of the lessons from producing that bulletin could be applied by anyone wanting to brief managers and colleagues. This is the story of that bulletin.

When I worked for the Canadian Forest Service (CFS) within Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), my team and I were involved in a lot of corporate files, in other words, initiatives that NRCan was undertaking that could have implications for CFS branches. We wanted to keep our colleagues informed without overwhelming them with a lot of information. The answer was a short weekly bulletin, which I sent to CFS management, my employees and anyone else who wanted to receive it. We called it InTREEguing in English and FormidARBRE in French. (I can't take credit for the memorable names—one of my employees came up with the catchy titles.)

InTREEguing was a bilingual, BlackBerry-friendly bulletin that recipients could quickly read on their phones on a Friday afternoon as their work week was winding down. Its aim was to give readers information they needed. The directors and managers of my branch contributed content, which I pulled into a coherent whole. As the editor-in-chief and the director general, I had the final say on what made it into the update. Only articles or headlines that provided information readers needed or would be interested in made the cut.

InTREEguing was used primarily to share topical news on files that my branch was involved in. This included the status of departmental activities relating to such files as planning and reporting, audits and evaluations, information management and information technology, real property, security, and health and safety. My directors, managers and I represented CFS on a lot of departmental committees and working groups, and the bulletin allowed us to quickly inform our colleagues about developments in those fora that might impact them.

We used a journalistic style for the bulletin, much like what you might hear in an 18-second item on the radio: short, factual and relevant. A "feature" story was made up of a headline—which enabled the reader to get the key point in one brief statement—followed by about four bulleted sentences providing additional details and the names of contacts for more info. Stories that could be told in one sentence were grouped together in a "headlines" section.

I sent the bulletin via email using a specially created distribution list, to which I could add or remove names. The InTREEguing distribution list was—itself—made up of other distribution lists, such as the CFS Management Committee, CFS directors and my branch employees. This made upkeep of the list easy since any changes to those distribution lists would automatically be reflected in the bulletin’s distribution list. The InTREEguing distribution list also contained the names of people who had requested to receive the bulletin directly, such as CFS supervisors and administrative staff, as well as NRCan colleagues who provided services to CFS, such as HR and financial advisors. We also posted each bulletin to an accessible folder, which served as a single repository of past issues.

It takes more effort to be concise. Writing and editing InTREEguing took a lot more time than readers might have realized. As they say, it takes more effort to be succinct than to write something that’s merely a stream of consciousness. As the editor-in-chief, I worked to ensure consistency in the style, to boil stories down to their essential elements, and to keep to the schedule.

Avoid abbreviations. We avoided acronyms and initialisms because they confused newcomers and were difficult to understand in French. While this meant that stories were slightly longer than they might otherwise have been, we concluded that comprehension was more important than saving a little space.

Publish on a consistent schedule. The consistent date of publication increased readership, as recipients knew when to expect it. One colleague once wrote to me, "I was just thinking about if I would receive your Friday afternoon note and it popped up on my screen! I think I can set my watch by this!"

While I didn't produce a weekly bulletin for broad distribution exactly like InTREEguing in my subsequent jobs in the Public Service, I did use the principles of the bulletin in several roles, especially to brief my bosses. For example, while leading a departmental file for NRCan, I sent a weekly status update to my boss. It took several hours to summarize in a couple of pages a week's worth of effort from my team along with our priorities for the coming week, but it answered my boss' questions before he needed to ask them, and thus was valuable to him and me. Similarly, when I was the Assistant Deputy Minister of Communications, I sent a biweekly note to the Deputy Minister of Health Canada and the President of the Public Health Agency of Canada. Once again, it took considerable time on my part and that of my managers and senior advisor to produce those bulletins, but they kept the Deputy Minister and President apprised of what my branch was doing to advance their priorities. They also served as a running list of our accomplishments and were a helpful resource for mid-year and year-end performance discussions.

Whatever format you adopt to keep your bosses and colleagues aware of information they need to know, make it clear, concise and relevant. And be consistent.