The Google Rule

Keeping it simple, while keeping it real?

The Background?

Where do you go when you want to find information about something? While AI is on the rise, for me, it’s still Google. Have you ever stopped to wonder why that is the name most associated with search? It’s not because it was the first. It’s not because it has a special space on the internet with first dibs on the most up-to-date information. I believe it is because it is very simple. You don’t need a college degree to use it and it’s end-user experience is sophisticated.??

Learning to search using Google helped me gain popularity in one of my prior roles and the guy who would know things about technology. Truth be told, I knew enough to be dangerous when it came to technology, but it was my ability to put in the right terms in Google and locate reputable sources that helped me locate answers more quickly than most.??

I never set out to become what others have dubbed me as ‘The Google Whiz’, but it came from a desire to learn more, know more, and expand my knowledge base. If I couldn’t remember something, I would just Google it.??

The Rule?

I call this one the Google rule because what I have found over time is that most people can’t handle large amounts of information at one time. There is lots of psychology and educational research around attention spans and retention, but what I am talking about here is the professional workspace and leadership. Part of being a leader is the ability to communicate. While there are hundreds of books on communicating as leader, I’ve found that one of the fundamental principals of effective communication as a leader is to keep things simple. Often times leaders pontificate, whether intentionally or unintentionally, on what they want or have to share. There are multiple reasons for this from the feeling of commanding an audience, to simply being a long-winded individual. Sometimes this happens when a leader is very passionate about a new idea or a specific topic. Thinking back to knowing your audience, what I have learned is that all audiences want digestible, bite-sized information with a chance to process it and ask questions. This doesn’t mean that you go from one meeting a month to ten shorter meetings a month, but that you are more effective with your agendas. Here are some strategies I used as a leader to keep things simple, yet engaging when communicating.?

1. Choose your medium wisely – Putting all updates into a meeting is not healthy or productive. It almost never has worked out well in my experience leading a meeting or participating in one. A meeting should be a group of people who are gathering for a purpose. If you have minor updates, that could be an email. If I have something I want people to do, such as an action item, I put it in an email where I space out the paragraphs, bold key dates, and put the due date in the email body and the subject line. This way, for people who use their email box as a to-do list, it works out well for them. For others, they can print it out, create a calendar reminder, or take care of it right then and there. If I have a minor announcement without an action item, I will send it through our instant communication channel (Teams, Slack, etc) so that the team knows that it’s something I am making them aware of but isn’t critical. With meetings, I try to always make sure it has a purpose. Sometimes that purpose is for face-to-face communication or collaboration, and that’s absolutely ok.??
2. Communicate the “why” when appropriate – People like to feel included in the decision making process. Most people want to be at the table when a decision is made. Unfortunately, that is something that can’t happen because nothing would ever get done. It’s one of the reasons organizations have structures. A great way to combat this is to explain, in a simple way, what led to this so that the team understands where it came from. Sometimes you can’t do this because of sensitive information, but I have learned to tell them that very statement. This way it feels like I am not hiding something, but that there was intention in the decision.??
3. Get to the point – Part of keeping it simple is getting to the point. I love a good analogy and if it would help illustrate a point, I would love to tell them. However, in most instance, people want you to get to the point so they can begin to process the new information. Keeping your language clear and concise is a great way to allow the processing to begin.?
4. Give opportunity to process and respond – When communicating as a leader, I try to “chunk” things into bite-sized bits of information so people have a moment to process. There should always be an opportunity for the team to respond to that specific topic after they’ve processed the information. Avoid the “questions at the end” approach if you want to get more quality questions. There will always be a meeting after the meeting, but by giving the team time to process and space to respond in the moment, it will make those meetings (of which you, as the leader, will not be privy to) less negative and more productive and expressive. ??

The Application?

One of my old bosses, Jake, was a man of few words. People admired him, respected him, and in some cases feared him. He was very careful in his word choices and when he made a decision, he was unmovable in his conviction. A co-worker and I often met with Jake regularly throughout the week to get directives on what he wanted us to work on. Sometimes it was a simple thing with visiting a specific school or principal and other days it was to make a new instructional model for training. Every time we went to his office you never knew what was going to happen. For me, I spoke extremely little in these meetings. While I respected him, I admit that I also feared him a bit. What is great about my coworker at the time is that we were so radically different in our own strengths. Anytime we left the meeting we immediately met again to debrief what we think he wanted to ensure that we were clear on the message. What would have been better would have been a space to ask in the meeting so that we didn’t have another follow-up meeting to discuss the conversation we both were just apart of. I learned from this experience the importance of giving that space to ask questions and to be clear and concise in my language, while giving the specifics of what I intended to communicate.??

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