Communicate Effectively
2022-02-04
Communicating effectively is harder than it sounds.
Talking is easy. But to do that effectively is more difficult.
Here are some tips that may help!
- Get to the point fast.
- Prefer asynchronous written communication over synchronous.
- Type out everything you wanted to say before saying it (this applies especially to questions). There’s no point in asking something in 5 separate messages. You’ll just dilute what you were trying to say and annoy people.
- Think about what you’re typing. Writing is a good way to clarify stuff to yourself. If necessary, find more data or even delete everything if you were about to ask a stupid question. (note: there are no stupid questions…)
- Use bullet-points / numbered lists so people can easily scan and reply to specific items individually.
- Simplify your language. Long words may make you seem clever, but people won’t understand as easily.
- Aim to document everything
- Re-read everything before you ask people to take the time to read it. The longer your writing (eg. a massive PR), the more carefully you need to re-read. You may spot obvious mistakes, answer your own question, or change your mind by doing this.
- Make sure relevant people know relevant information. Potentially deliver the same message in different formats and mediums.
- Favour communication in public over in private. Other people will benefit!
- If in doubt, post the message. Under-communication is more dangerous than over-communication.
- Make sure the relevant people know. Potentially “tag” them if they could miss the message.
- Write to most relevant place & to the smallest number of people. Who needs to know? A single person? The team? A large group of people? People will engange more if there are fewer other people around.