Internal Writing
Companies don't have communication problems, they have miscommunication problems. Thoughtful long-form writing is the most effective way to communicate within a group. Strong written communicaton leads to a reduction in meetings, video conferences, and other real-time interuptions.
Schema
Value Time
Give meaningful discussions a meaningful amount of time to develop and unfold. Rushing to judgement, or demanding immediate responses, only serves to increase the odds of poor decision making.
Meetings are the last resort, not the first option
Never expect or require someone to get back to you immediately unless it's a true emergency. The expectation of immediate response is toxic. Five people in a room for an hour isn't a one hour meeting, it's a five hour meeting.
Clarity of Thought
Writing solidifies, chat dissolves. Substantial decisions start and end with an exchange of complete thoughts, not one-line-at-a-time jousts. If it's important, critical, or fundamental, write it up, don't chat it down.
If you have to repeat yourself, you weren't clear enough the first time. However, if you're talking about something brand new, you may have to repeat yourself for years before you're heard.
Pick your repeats wisely.
Collective Intelligence
Speaking only helps who's in the room, writing helps everyone. This includes people who couldn't make it, or future employees who join years from now. If your words can be perceived in different ways, they'll be understood in the way which does the most harm.
Poor communication creates more work. The smaller the company, group, or team, the fewer opportunities for miscommunication.
Questions
If you want an answer, you have to ask a question. Review questions on a regular schedule to evolve practices for sharing, writing, and communicating ideas, improve situational wisdom by providing context.
- Factual are the things people also need to know.
- Spatial is how communication is hierarchical structure.
If something's going to be difficult to hear or share, invite questions at the end. Ask if things are clear. Ask what you left out. Ask if there was anything someone was expecting that you didn't cover. Address the gaps before they widen with time.
Timing
Now is often the wrong time to say what just popped into your head. It's better to let it filter it through the sieve of time. What's left is the part worth saying. Writing, rather than speaking or meeting, is independent of schedule and far more direct.
Time is on your side, rushing makes conversations worse.
Communication often interrupts, so good communication is often about saying the right thing at the right time in the right way with the fewest side effects. Ask yourself if others will feel compelled to rush their response. If you aren't sure you have captured the truth, sleep on it before saying it.
You may have spare time on a Sunday afternoon to write something, but putting it out there on Sunday may pull people back into work on the weekends. Early Monday communication may be buried by other things. There may not be a perfect time, but there's certainly a wrong time. Keep that in mind when you hit send.
Delivery
Where you put something, and what you call it, matters. When titling something, lead with the most important information. Keep in mind that many systems truncate long text or titles.
Great news delivered on the heels of bad news makes both bits worse. The bad news feels like it's being buried, the good news feels like it's being injected to change the mood. Be honest with each by giving them adequate space.
Verbal communication is lossy. Whenever possible, communicate directly with those you're addressing rather than passing the message through intermediaries.
The right communication in the wrong place might as well not exist at all. When someone relies on search to find something it's often because it wasn't where they expected something to be.