Dear all, and what most people write instead

You’ve written „Dear all“ hundreds of times. Nobody has ever complained, and nobody ever will.

It’s correct. It’s also a little more formal than you probably feel about the eight people who are going to read it. Half of them sit near you. You had coffee with two of them this morning.

„Hi everyone“ is what most people write to a team they know. It sounds like someone talking to people, rather than an announcement going out to a room.

Keep „Dear all“ for the emails that need some distance, a complaint or a group you’ve never met. For everything else, warm up the top line.

Quick win: Next time you write to your team, open with „Hi everyone„. Nothing else in the email has to change.