This week I shared some thoughts in our monthly Queenstown Technology Group meeting, I shared some words regarding communication issues we face in a daily basis.
Started by explaining my presentation was more about remember we have issues rather than delivering answers. This ended in a nice chat where everyone had some suggestion or funny story to share.
Here is a transcript of what I shared (or tried to):
Communication
When I started as a developer I had a lot of troubles understanding people’s requirements for a project or task.
I found myself in endless meetings, chats and emails, I thought is was because my inexperience and I was expecting this to be a phase of the learning process.
Years passed by and I was still having communications issues with people, so I blamed the culture of the area I was living.
When I decided to move into NZ I found myself fighting with the same issues, was very hard to get effective answers to questions or communicate ideas.
What I did? I blamed the language of course :)
After 3 years around, and working with people from multiple countries, I have no more excuses, clearly the fault is mine when some one ask and I need to google what this guy means with his question:
“Hi Cris, got a few mins, Putting in an R&D application. Requirements, Research, Methods, Challenges. Anything you can elaborate on?”
I’m a programmer, clearly something is wrong with me if I don’t know about tax paperwork and what an R&D is, right? RIGHT?. I should know about that and everything else!
Had a lot of thinking about why this happens.. and tried to listen more (still trying), and I found this is worst than expected.
Happens everywhere, at home between my wife and daughter, within friends, happens right now where I’m trying to communicate abstract ideas in a language I’m still learning.
We are plain bad communicating. We have this amazing tool that allowed us to evolve as an species, but we are giving it for granted and we are not taking care of it.
So, I guess that the first step is accept we have a problem.
The issues we experience can exist in all steps of the communication process:
Source/Encoding: people may be unable to express their thoughts in a meaningful way, or they just don’t care :)
Medium/Channel: noise, attention eaters, intermittent availability, language barriers.
Receiver/Decoding: poor base knowledge about the topic, lack of care, genuine inability to pay attention or empathy (unable to wear other’s shoes).
As I said before, I don’t have answers or any revelation solution for these issues, but maybe we can start by trying harder.
We can improve our selves to ease the pain to our receivers and learn about the common issues that are out of your control to protect your mental health.
I want to highlight some basic things we should care on a daily basis, if you find them very obvious good on you!
At the Source
If you are the receiver, there is no much you can do about how others will write an email or express an idea, but what you can do is pay attention. Try to put yourself in the other side and simply ask to confirm that if what you understood is correct (of course this could be misunderstood on the way back and you are f#$ but you get the idea)
When asking for confirmation do not just repeat what you heard, re-frame the information in a different (maybe clearer) way and if possible include examples, but remember to keep it as simple as possible.
If you are the source, let’s say by email. You need to always assume people will pay poor attention, therefore try to write short and concise emails or slice the email in sections to allow the other side to track the main points. You can use some bold here and there and maybe a red text here and there but do not abuse!
Do not assume any knowledge on the other side, is your duty to include any relevant information and if required to introduce the receiver into the topic you are bringing into the table, the reader is not in your mind.
If you are requesting information on multiple questions you will find that some people tends to answer the 1st question and forget about everything else. If you can afford to wait then just try to avoid multiple questions on the same email, but if you do include multiple questions then use numbers in front of the questions and make them very short so the reader’s eyes can see there is a list of questions in one view.
If each question requires explanation, slice the email in topics, describe each and add the questions at the end in a “Questions” section. (during the meeting was suggested they should go at the beginning and that makes much more sense!)
Also when possible make a call and have the required chat by phone instead of dozens of emails. After you agree in something you can send an email to confirm the outcome of the talk and have a clear record as a reference where you can come back.
Medium/Channel
This is quite broad, and what you should be looking to avoid are things that can hurt the quality of the transmission.
Noises/Skype
The simplest example would be avoid a noisy coffee for a meeting. If you rely on Skype is even more important to avoid noisy places and turn off any background music. This may not bother you, but you don’t know about the receiver.
If you are in a Skype meeting and you are not meant to speak put your mic in mute (common courtesy!). Try to use an external microphone and if you are forced to use your laptop mic then avoid typing while speaking. I should not need to say you should have a headset if Skype is your thing.
Language
If you are speaking with a non native English speaker, try to avoid local words and make sure to talk calmly and with pauses between sentences. Allow the other side to process what you are saying. Even fluent speakers will benefit from this. When you are listening to a non English speaker feel free to ask us to repeat something or clarify, we don’t bite!.
Common ground
In a project, make sure everyone uses the same vocabulary when referring to things related to the business, create a glossary and share it.
The other day I found that in a project I’m working on, people in different departments are using the same words to describe different things. This is cause of a lot of misunderstandings if not detected on time.
| Developers | BDM |
|---|---|
| Fare | Product |
| Product | Package |
| Package | Combo |
Still wondering how many headaches this caused.
Email
In an email, assume the receiver will not pay much attention so take your time to write emails in a clear way to help your message to be delivered as required. When possible use diagrams to express complex ideas.
Spelling
I heard somewhere “we dress with suits not to look nice, but to show respect to our clients”, as IT workers we get away from a lot of that social etiquette, reckon we should at the minimum show some respect and write with care when reaching people.
Receiver
No much to add, but again, pay genuine attention. If someone is speaking to you then stop what ever you are doing and listen. If you can not stop then just reschedule for later, there is no value on making someone else lose their time.
If an email comes in and you find it well written give the sender a thumbs up for doing this world a better place, if the email is not in good shape take the opportunity to take over and guide the conversation.