All At Once

All communication is delayed, but the delay is getting shorter.

Human language, formed 70,000 years ago and allowed us mere mammals to start leaving the herd. We became much more advanced with the use of our verbal exchanges and cooperative behaviours.

From complex human language to writing systems, then the printing press, telegraph, telephone, radio, television, and now the internet, things are getting faster. However, we can still improve upon today’s iteration of ‘modern communication’.

The next quantum leap will come when we can know everything ‘all at once’, and it will happen faster than the previous advancements.

Imagine you’re at a set of traffic lights.

There are four cars in front of you.

The lights turn green; car 1 moves forward;

then car 2,

then car 3,

then car 4,

and finally you.

When the lights turn green, your obstruction changes.

You’re no longer waiting for the lights; you’re waiting for the cars.

If everything happened all at once - if the cars were interconnected and could communicate with each other instantly - there would be no obstruction after the lights. In large organisations, there are many cars (layers of communication, and many sets of traffic lights (systems and processes to follow).

The traffic light analogy is a simplified real-world process but shares similarities with the daily challenges of business communication.

If the processes and systems take too long to execute, you create a backlog.

If your communications are delayed, delivery times are prolonged.

Do you need as many layers of communication in your organisation? If you do, what can you change to achieve communication that happens all at once?

Sometimes you have to go against the rule book.

Here is how Jensen Huang, Co-Founder and CEO of Nvidia, structures his direct reports.

A few weeks ago, I watched an interview with Jensen Huang. He was questioned about his controversial number of direct reports. He has 50. One reason is to reduce the layers in the company, allowing information to ‘flow more fluidly and empower everyone with the information’.

Jensen discussed group meetings and mentioned that he rarely holds 121 sessions with his direct reports. He believes no information should be limited to just one or two people, whether it’s company problems or challenges. In a team working towards a common goal, sharing information openly can be highly beneficial unless the matter is personal and private, which he finds infrequent. There are great advantages to sharing this information ‘all at once.’ This approach promotes shared learnings, allows team members to learn from each other’s mistakes, and results in faster advancement and overall growth.

Jensen believes there is no privileged information he operates on, and this should apply to all of us. However, our actions often suggest otherwise. Information is unnecessarily withheld, channeled through specific ‘right’ paths, and must be delivered by ‘the right people’ in ‘the right way.’ This is a fabricated story we tell ourselves. We are all individuals working towards a shared purpose and mission, irrespective of our titles. If something needs to be said to advance that mission, it should be communicated openly to everyone so we can act on it collectively, all at once.

Think about the communication structures in your own organisation. Are there layers that could be streamlined? Are there opportunities to share information more openly? By making these changes, you can help your team act 'all at once' towards common goals.

Thanks for reading,

James