| COMPOSABLE

No consultant starts a presentation from zero. Let's learn from slide banks and iterating start-ups to build our own repository. Composable work is a mindset shift that will set you apart, no matter your line of work.

How to create building blocks in Google Docs

Google Docs has had "building blocks" for a while. Building blocks were pre-built tables you can expand, such as "Product Roadmap". In another category, you can collaboratively draft emails and calendar invitations. So far, that was it. Now, you can create your own building blocks! A building block can be any content you can into a document's body - in fact, it is a Doc, stored on your Google Drive.

You can name those blocks, insert them as often as you like. To edit or delete them, click Insert > Building Block > Custom building block > Manage to open the folder where they are stored as Google Docs files.

Building blocks are inserted as-is, bringing their formatting with them. Your building blocks can contain text, tables, images - even smart chips.

Composing anything with building blocks

• Explanations: Stop cloudsearching for that one document (or was it an email?) where you had it just right.

• Requirements: If it comes from someone else, you might forget. Store it as a building block: Risk statements, terms and conditions.

• Checklists: Insert a checklist into your document and work it off.

• Contract clauses: Lawyers mix and match variations of contract clauses. So can you: "Timeline: 30 days" and "Testing of controls: Low complexity".

• Sign-off: Your own name, department title, signature - no need to type.

• Letters: Look up how an address is formatted, write it once and insert it over and over.

• Complete documents: Instead of copying a well-done document over and over, create a proper template one that you can slowly improve.

Anything you type more than once is a candidate for becoming an item in your composable repository.

Composability is a mindset shift

Good knowledge workers are distinguished by their ability to transform information into insights. It is not the amount of emails sent, forms filled out, or research papers read that matters. What matters is the insights you gain and the value you provide to others. You gain meaning by shifting from a consumer mentality to a producer mentality.

When you acquire knowledge, it is one thing to keep it to yourself, but it becomes exponentially more useful if you share it with others. You will benefit from feedback, which will improve and refine your knowledge (and your reputation!). One way to put your insights to good use is to create valuable intermediate packages that you can build on to create real value and refine over time.

These packages can take many forms, such as modules, betas, sketches, pilots, prototypes, or demos. In my work, I use a lot of explanations. I have lists of paragraphs (and blog posts!) explaining aspects of Duet AI, how to set up Meet for 1000 people, how to get help from whom.  They save me time, they are very valuable to the people I send them to, and they form the basis of executive briefings and security write-ups. They are not static, because I am not a parrot. Every time I use them, I enhance them a little bit. My time and my previous work are too precious to start from scratch. I am sure the same applies to you.

Composability in other Google Workspace services

Before custom building blocks, you could achieve something similar by saving snippets into Google Keep and dropping the note back onto your documents or emails. That is still an option, of course! The beauty of the Keep solution is that it's available in Docs, Sheets, Slides and Gmail.

Speaking of email: Gmail is the OG of composability, thanks to its easy-to-use templating engine. I use it to insert frequently used text snippets instead of full emails. Other uses include auto responders. As mentioned earlier, Docs' reusable drafts for Gmail are , in effect, another way of templating.

Docs, Sheets, Slides, Sites and Forms all support templates, which is not true composability: By using a template, you make a copy of a document to avoid a blank page. You start by modifying pre-formatted slides. Another difference is that building blocks are personal, templates are maintained by your company.

I could not finish without mentioning Duet AI: When you ask generative AI to suggest a project plan, an email response etc., you are inserting a building block, then refining it. Duet AI will bring composability to every Google Workspace - but there will always be a place for your own judgment and your own building blocks.

I'd like you to think about your most valuable contributions. What do you have to store into a template or building block to re-use and improve upon? To learn about composability, what information to store and how, take a look at Tiago Forte's Building a Second Brain.

Finally, the largest item in our inventory of composability is of course: A Google Workspace document itself. Its culture of sharing and collaborating, of being free from hoarding, from backups, from copies and attachments. This is why we do it, and you're part of the revolution. Thank you for reading!

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