Skip to main content

Communication

Engineering for the Rest of Us by Sarah Drasner​

Your team is a "we." What happens on that team is your responsability. When you speak about your team, include yourself in the statement.

When your team succeeds in something, though, traise them and leave yourself out of it. By leaving yourself out, you give the team the credit they deserve.

However, you're the responsible and accountable party for setting the team up appropriately for the success of the project, so if the team failed at something, you should use "I..."

When you talk about the leadership team, this is "we" too. You can't speak to your team about decisions that were made at a table with your peers and boss and say, "they decided something you don't agree with" even if you don't agree. You were there. Ideally, you took part in that decision... As a manager, our job is to try as much as we can to drive balance and clarity. [6]

There was a time a while ago when I asked my team to do something, and none of them did it. What happened there? Given that it's a team of highly efficient, strong collaboratiors, do you think they just all table-flipped and didn't take action? Not a chance. I was the one who wasn't clear. In fact, if a whoe group of people don't understand or take action, the chance is you, the manager, are the common denominator for why something is blocked. [14]

...The most important thing we can do to write better documents and give better speeches is to write them first, and then reread them from the audience's perspective... As you reread, consider the following:

  • What would I think if I watched or read this witout context?
  • What would I need to know right away?
  • What are the key questions I might have and not how can I quickly resolve them? ... it's pertinent that you edit diligently. Restructure your draft, let go of anything that is crowding your message. Rewrite anything that is potentially confusing. [15]

Driving fear out of the workplace by Ryan and Oestreich​

Never take for granted that the receiver has the same reality as you. Never take for granted that the receiver will interpret the message the way it was intended. Communication is not an absolute, finite thing. Always assume as many different realities exist as there are different people involved in the communication.