Escalation email

How to use it well

• →Escalate the issue, not the person — describe what was tried and by when, and let the timeline speak instead of characterizing anyone's competence.
• →Lead with the business impact, not the history; the reader decides whether to act based on what's at stake, not how long you've been stuck.
• →Ask for a specific decision, not "help" — a resolvable ask gets resolved, a vague one gets acknowledged and shelved.

Part by part

Escalating: {{issue_summary}}

Names the action in the subject. An escalation that does not announce itself is read as another update and waits in the queue with them.

{{original_contact}} and I have been working through

Credits the person you were working with rather than going around them. It is what keeps an escalation from reading as a complaint about a colleague.

since {{start_date}}

Establishes elapsed time, which is usually the strongest single argument that escalation is warranted.

What I've tried: {{attempts}}

Pre-empts the first question any senior person asks. Without it the reply is a list of things you have already done.

I need a decision on {{decision_needed}}

Asks for a decision rather than attention. Escalations that ask for help produce sympathy; ones that ask for a specific decision produce an answer.

Common mistakes

• This still isn't resolved and I need help.

  Asks for help without naming what decision is needed, so the recipient has to work out what to do. Escalations framed this way tend to be forwarded rather than acted on.

• Escalating without telling the person you were working with.

  Damages the working relationship for no gain, and the recipient will usually ask them anyway. Copying them, or telling them first, keeps the escalation about the issue.

• I've been waiting weeks and nobody is doing anything.

  Frames it as a grievance, which invites a defence of the process rather than a decision. The same facts stated neutrally, with dates, are considerably harder to dismiss.

Questions