Nonwritten communication is unreliable. People often have different interpretations of what was said and what exactly should be done. The only way to reliably manage work is to have everything written down.
Written communication is remote work super power
161–170 of 194 posts
Re: Written communication is remote work super power
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
Recently, I was so frustrated with some folks poor reading comprehension that I was thinking about an imaginary communication system that would allow for decision making where there were some rules: - No responding from mobile devices. The poor response rate is just too high. - The reader is quizzed on the the contents of the communication before they can respond (randomly generated quizzes might be amusing). - The r…
> - No responding from mobile devices. The poor response rate is just too high. For me, the tendency of slack to let users write very short sentences/phrases is the issue. Etiquette for slack allows very IM like messages, whereas Emails are generally required to be more verbose.
It can be quite useful when replying to each point though, you can quote each one independently since they're not merged into one big blob of text.
Not saying it's impossible otherwise of course, just slightly more convenient.
Re: Written communication is remote work super power
#163Async communication is suitable to resolve some kind of issues. But it has two drawbacks: participants need to be competent at writing and reading prose (it’s harder than it sounds) and even with the best of care your ideas can easily be misinterpreted resulting in the loss of an async cycle. For problems which are not well defined, and where a lot of decisions need to be taken, especially when they verge toward the…
> misinterpreted resulting in the loss of an async cycle. True, but readily fixed with "Can we talk about this when you have a minute?" Also, losing "an async cycle" is a completely alien concept to me. I've been working remotely for a decade, never heard that phrase, and not entirely sure why it matters. Does a conversation that takes 14 Slack messages make the business less efficient than one that only took 11? Hon…
Well if one async cycle takes 1 day due to timezones, that 11 vs 14 cycles becomes not negligible.
Re: Written communication is remote work super power
#164Effective written communication is remote work super power
that! I wrote something on the same lines https://giuseppegurgone.com/remote-work-communication/
I read it and I like it, thanks for sharing. Though I do hold the unpopular opinion that slack is antithetical to effective communication methods/mediums.
Re: Written communication is remote work super power
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
that! I wrote something on the same lines https://giuseppegurgone.com/remote-work-communication/
I read it and I like it, thanks for sharing. Though I do hold the unpopular opinion that slack is antithetical to effective communication methods/mediums.
yes I agree
Re: Written communication is remote work super power
#166Async communication is suitable to resolve some kind of issues. But it has two drawbacks: participants need to be competent at writing and reading prose (it’s harder than it sounds) and even with the best of care your ideas can easily be misinterpreted resulting in the loss of an async cycle. For problems which are not well defined, and where a lot of decisions need to be taken, especially when they verge toward the…
>For problems which are not well defined, and where a lot of decisions need to be taken, especially when they verge toward the arbitrary, it’s a lot easier to have people in a room and hash it out Easier in what way? I think it makes people less frustrated by having to think hard about a hard problem, and feels "better" when everyone is saying what they think without any barriers, but I would guess it's much worse at…
1.) Taking notes and summarizing conclusions is massively faster then having that whole discussion in writing.
2.) Most people are not gifted writers and speakers. They have hard time to express themselves properly. The spoken communication is faster and pretty often someone else can help to rephrase it couple of times or ask series of clarifying questions until it makes sense. This process is looong or does not happen in writing.
3.) Quick turn on simple clarifying questions.
4.) Honorable mention:
> The in person meeting just seems like a space to share emotions and make shows of power in front of others.
Emotions and politics are part of being humans. Humans typically need to share emotions and react to other peoples emotions. Someone refusing the idea for emotional reasons is not something exceptional - and typically harder to deal with in writing. It is harder to recognize in writing and harder to respond to in writing.
And I guarantee you that shows of power are crap in writing as much as they are in person. It does not disappear.
Re: Written communication is remote work super power
#167Async communication is suitable to resolve some kind of issues. But it has two drawbacks: participants need to be competent at writing and reading prose (it’s harder than it sounds) and even with the best of care your ideas can easily be misinterpreted resulting in the loss of an async cycle. For problems which are not well defined, and where a lot of decisions need to be taken, especially when they verge toward the…
> even with the best of care your ideas can easily be misinterpreted resulting in the loss of an async cycle This is not unique to async communication at all -- it is just becomes more apparent. I have experienced a lot of sync communication, in which people only seemingly agreed and, when prompted later or as apparent by their resulting actions, quite clearly understood very different things. There is also the very…
Thank you for writing this out.
It's scary how many posters are missing the fact that writing is difficult Because It Makes Miscommunication Explicit
All the same misunderstandings - and more! - happen in spoken communications and discussions. The only difference is each party leaves without realizing it, and there is no record of what happened. (And if there are meeting notes, they only record the understanding of whoever wrote them)
Re: Written communication is remote work super power
#168Async communication is suitable to resolve some kind of issues. But it has two drawbacks: participants need to be competent at writing and reading prose (it’s harder than it sounds) and even with the best of care your ideas can easily be misinterpreted resulting in the loss of an async cycle. For problems which are not well defined, and where a lot of decisions need to be taken, especially when they verge toward the…
I can't say enough how much I love the Amazon style of disttill your thoughts into a doc (doesn't have to be long) then schedule a meeting where everyone gets time to read it first and comment inline, then discuss. As you scale out your influence this helps even more. Even friendly readers should take a bit of a grader/devil's advocate approach and call out anything that can improve. Any qq they ask a later person, less in the loop or more skeptical because they have their own ideas person will definitely ask. So fix those sections and your doc and your written communication skills will greatly improved through iteration.
Also you get bit the distilled document that can be reused later (big win of written) and the high rate communication of a live meeting. And focus.
Re: Written communication is remote work super power
#169Real-time, spoken communication is on-site work super power. When uncertainty is high, and an intense discussion is needed, spoken word is much more efficient, from my experience. People are fundamentally better at speaking quickly and taking proper turns. This all is much slower and more cumbersome in video call, phone call, or a text chat. The perceived sequence breaks, the turn-taking protocol breaks (unless enfor…
when you have three introverts and one extrovert talking you end up with the extrovert talking and introverts listening. All the introverts have agreed by minute 2 and are itching to get to work. Meanwhile the extrovert elaborates for a further 25 minutes on some philosophies and generalisms and the introverts eyes are glazed over.
That's because when the extrovert is talking to other extroverts, they will tell him "yeah, yeah, we get it" and not just sit there like a sheep and let him pontificate.
How about you try that instead of just bearing with uncomfortable experiences? Chances are he'll be far less offended than you might think. Talk is cheap, after all.
Re: Written communication is remote work super power
#170Actually funny this question. Because come to think about it, text is by far my preffered way to communicate. That goes for work and for serious-private matters. The absolute strengt with text is that it gives you history by default - you can save it. While you can save text it's also eaiser to the search. The mental model around writing and communicating is the mental proces that goes into it, and which is also the…
It's worth noting that some people specifically see verbal communication's undocumented-by-default nature as a feature. When I was younger I found that idea very offensive. I considered people who held that viewpoint to be suspect (engaging in political machinations, or using fluid recollections of conversations to their advantage). I still think there's a grain of truth to my suspicions, but I've learned to recogniz…
> I've learned to recognize that there are acceptable reasons for undocumented conversations.
It seems bizarre to me that one could think otherwise. Unless you meant but did not specify that you're only speaking of line-of-business workplace communication, of course. Otherwise, I find it hard to believe you could forge any actual relationships with people if you try to have a record for everything.