Send and receive

Today is “World Telecommunication and Information Society Day”. I have to admit that it’s not something that I’ve celebrated before. I’m not even sure if it’s the kind of event that warrants a balloon.

Perhaps it’s the experience of working remotely, but I’m fairly sure that it’s not contentious to state that good communication is a key differentiator in ensuring that we can work together effectively - and enjoyably.

Our current ability to send and receive communication is amazing. We can speak with hundreds of colleagues, from our couch at home. It’s such a shock to step back and compare against the experience of a few generations ago. Even in my lifetime, international phonecalls went from being landline-only and expensive, to being something that I don’t even think twice about before picking up my mobile.?

Yet even in a world where the barrier is not our ability to exchange messages in a timely manner, communication can still remain a barrier. And if it’s not the medium, then it must be … us? Uh oh.

So I’m choosing to spend today reflecting on how to improve my communication - that is, making sure that the message I want to share is received as I intended it to be. And conversely, how I can be a better receiver.?

Here are some of the ways I’m going to be consciously choosing to try and be a better sender:

• Making sure I’m as open and transparent with my communication as possible. Like many workplaces, using tools such as slack makes it easy to interact with many colleagues. However, I find we don’t always use that ability to its full advantage: instead of making a piece of information visible to all, there’s an easier alternative to send it to the person who you were talking to. That’s fine … but keep in mind that you’re missing an opportunity to easily share that information with others who might also benefit from knowing.?My new habit: Can I share it on a public channel? Then do so. If not, can I share it on a private channel? Then do so. Then - and only then - resort to a direct message.?
• The “5 line” rule: A request comes in and several messages are exchanged to answer something that was … well, actually straightforward in the end, but only after spending a bit of time on clarifications. Sound familiar? I think we’ve all had that experience. So consider: that’s a lot of time and effort spent, while we speak faster than we type.?My new habit: If a written communication takes more than 5 lines of exchange to resolve, then hop on a call and have a quick chat. Bonus:?we might exchange addition information that probably wasn't worth typing but was still valuable to share.
• Ask for playback: I have a bad habit of providing a lot of information in chunks. I do try to break them down into manageable bite-sized pieces where I can, but when I can’t, I often fall into a trap of asking “did that make sense?”. That’s not a great question! Why? Sure, if the other person says ‘no’, then that’s a clear signal. However, if they say ‘yes’, perhaps they did understand what I meant … or perhaps they understood something different. The tricky part is that neither of us can pick up that we’re not talking about the same thing (unless one of us is a mind reader) which can lead to a delayed misunderstanding. So, I’m going to be mindful of ways of checking that my intended meaning was the one that was received - either by asking for playback (not great, as it puts onus on the receiver) or by providing extra context around the information I just shared which hopefully makes it easier to detect misunderstanding. Which is a good segue into considering the other side of communication …?

As a receiver, I’m going to be more mindful of:

• Asking questions if it’s not unambiguously clear what you meant. One of my biggest pet peeves is throwing away effort. The worst case I ever heard of was a team that was told to rewrite code for use in production. One key detail was omitted: what programming language should be used. The end result was they had to throw away 3 months of work. Ouch! So, where work is being requested, I’m going to be more mindful of checking that details and context are shared so that the right piece of work gets done. The bonus: often, it’s also a good way of sharing additional information. So, help me ahead of time by including details that are important for others to know.
• Closing screens that might distract me: when I’m in a video call, I’ve become increasingly aware of having to refrain from clicking on a new message in slack or email. The result is it’s easy to end up distracted and miss details in a way that I wouldn’t, were I sitting in a meeting room. So, I’m turning off the distractions.?
• Asking for domain-specific details and keeping the jargon-meter on full charge: Hey, it’s a challenge of working in a multidisciplinary setting! I was in a call recently where there were a lot of acronyms used that weren’t obvious to the majority of the audience. The effect was that we spent more time googling and texting to work out what they meant, rather than listening. Twas a pity! And it’s not just for acronyms: the same holds true for concepts as well. It’s an easy trap to fall into, but sometimes difficult to detect. I'm comfortable in asking clarifications for myself, so my effort now in 2022 will also be on checking in for others.
• Encouraging others to share information more widely. If I believe that you’re telling me something that’s actually useful for others to know, I will be encouraging you to share it!

So, that’s me. In the interests of sharing communication and information, how are you going to be a better communicator this year??