How lack of efficient communication can ruin your product on the long term.

Is this a taboo subject ? Is this a cliché people are tired of ?

There are many organizations out there who preach about how efficient their processes are and how good communication is their foundational stone.

But is it though ?

Having a solid experience in debate and public speaking it's fairly easy for me to detect efficiency problems or even deceptive intentions during meetings, presentations and other types of collaborative contexts.

Let me identify a few for you, and tell me if you've dealt with them:

?? Lack of Clarity. Happens when instructions or expectations are not clearly communicated. Can also occur when information is passed from A to B to C to D and so on. Focus can be lost along the way.

?? Active Listening: or rather - the lack of it! When team members can miss important information or fail to understand different perspectives.

?? Language Barriers: I believe this speaks for itself. How can you transmit detailed technical information in another language when you don't have proficiency in that common language ?

Now, for some really nasty & difficult situations to deal with:

?? Deceptive communication: when someone intentionally misleads others by using vague or ambiguous language. Lack of specificity even.

?? Complex messaging: Extreme usage of convoluted language to avoid being direct or to evade responsibility. Misunderstanding and frustration can be first effects as well as trust levels being decreased rapidly.

?? Obfuscation: Obscuring of the intended meaning of communication by making the message difficult to understand.

Especially in the technical world where there are many moving parts the key to success is an efficient, transparent communication.

Too many times the gap between the tech people and non tech people is too large and consistent efforts are not made to create a bridge between them.

Effects of these issues: misunderstandings, poor decision-making, weak planning, decreased productivity, low morale, conflictual situations and so many more.

...and these are only internal!

Externals are even worse:

- inefficient applications

- unsatisfied customers -> loss of customers!

- bad ratings overall

What can we do to increase our communication efficiency then?

? Be transparent and clear about your intentions.

? Take responsibility for your actions.

? Don't shy away from talking about the elephant in the room, people won't bite. But if they do, then it's time to run, you may be witnessing a zombie apocalypse.

? Listen actively. Communication is a two way process.

? 55/38/7 rule. 55% is non-verbal, 38% vocal and ONLY 7% is the message itself. In our digital world with online meetings, be prepared to express yourself using all the tools you have available to make sure you gave 100%.

Things are just as complicated as we make them to be. (I'm excluding from this post quantum physics).

Nothing is impossible with the right determination and corresponding mindset, they only need to be adjusted to converge towards your focus and interest.

On the long term, a measure success can be how many times do you need to repeat the same information to somebody.

This is not a whose fault was it in the first place:

• Did you do your absolute best transmitting your message ?
• Was your listener active listening ? Was your listener the listener who should have received the message ?

All these above are just presented in an extremely brief fashion but there's an entire science behind that you, reader could go for if you're searching in how to become efficient.

A good place to start is to identify the problems your team is dealing with and then try to solve them appropriately.

Too complicated ?

Rome wasn't built in a day. It requires consistency and practice.

Bonus further reading:

• Any book on how to be articulate in the communication process, really
• The Art of Being Right, Arthur Schopenhauer
• And of course, for the SF fans who follow me: Remembrance of Earth's Past, Liu Cixin. Yes it's an absolute fantastic series and one key aspect is how the (SPOILER AHEAD) trisolarians used to communicate with each other. What can we learn from them ?

In conclusion, efficient communication is the foundation of success in any organization. Problems generated by lack of this can lead to terrible situations and can be felt economically.

However, I tried my best to provide some solutions and insights regarding these problems and obviously, if you need my expertise, I am here for you.

What problems have you encountered ?

How did you overcome them ?