Communication limitations are real and there are design solutions.
What needs to happen:
- Clarify a transparent step-by-step approach to articulating project goals.
- Write out and post on a wall the guiding questions.
- What do you all plan to do?
- How do you plan to do it?
- How do you plan to show and convince others of it?
- Create a regular system of check-ins among the teammates outlining what needs to be discussed, how, and what are the take aways.
- Never leave a meeting without answering - Do we have a clear idea of the next steps?
- Give honest feedback, but be respectful.
- Never assume anyone just knows what to do or what you are talking about.
- Never assume something doesn't need to be explained.
In a field where most work is completed in project teams and is client-initiated, how can we get away with not addressing verbal communication necessities in our education?
Just because we speak the same language, does not mean we can communicate and understand each other. This is a skill that people develop! We need to approach the communication process as a design process, integral to project success. We create relationships, functional and dysfunctional, through verbal and physical communication.
We need to create:
- Design a system of information exchange
- State the ground rules
- Make the expectations clear
- Seek to understand and listen
- Leave ego outside the room
We are a process industry, as much as a product industry. We just want to get to designing things, the fun part, but approaching verbal exchange, question asking, information gathering as a system to be designed, creating a platform for useful exchange, is integral.
We know how to speak, that doesn't mean we communicate well.
In fact, let's all assume, we do it poorly, and apply our design efforts equally to that task.
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