Enhanced Management Environment by Succinct Communication

Why Does Understanding Matter?

How often do you face an awkward minute trying to explain your thoughts to someone, but clearly, your efforts are negated by partial or even total misunderstanding? That's not just a common issue, but daily chores. We're always meeting challenges in understanding our wives, children, relatives, friends, colleagues, bosses, clients, investors, etc. Explicit chatting could be easily diminished by reason of age, mental disorder, significant impairment of intelligence and social functioning, a physical disability or disorder, or just by lousy mood.

Unfortunately, there is no magical spell or wound available that makes everyone understand each other. Still, we may facilitate the liaison, foster the rapport, and prove it to be more explicit by better knowing each other's culture and physical, mental, and personal intrinsic traits, and simply by talking clearly, writing understandably without linguistical "bells and whistles," but by using straightforward language instead. This article may give some hints on how to communicate better.

Why Does Understanding Matter? - Enhanced Management Environment by Succinct Communication

Why is Clear Messaging Important Within Management?

Management is about dealing with clients, ourselves, and the cornucopia of other people. Managers are entangled with a bench of processes, procedures, methodologies, and metrics associated with a tough endeavor to reach a mutual benefit with someone else. Being effective and productive is a challenging task, but doing that for the mutual interest of the group of people equally looks almost impossible.

Fortunately, there are some shortcuts. In many cases, competent articulation, rephrasing, and good emotional intelligence can overcome communication difficulties.

Project.co estimates that crucial ways of business communication in 2024 are emails (31%) and online chats (26%), with face-to-face communication having 7%. Around 38% of business companies employees believe their internal communication quality is above average. Still, 94%, according to Project.co things that there is room for improvement in the communication, especially with clients and customers. And 72%, according to Viraj Mahajan (Notta), believe that effective communication reinforces productivity.

Miscommunication is a problem indeed. Around 66% of people in the business sector respond to being affected by miscommunication at least once per day, and 48% said that they encounter issues with understanding a few times per day.

The worse we transfer our thoughts, the worse job we do. So, how do we fix or at least mitigate communication gaps?

First, the rapport should be entrenched.

First, make sure that our counterparts pay attention before speaking to them. Most of the communication should avoid technical jargon and figures of speech as much as possible. Jargon is about detailed, fruitful workshops with the technical team and Subject Matter Experts to resolve specific problems. However, general communication should be reduced by the number of overburdened phrases and words. Using simple language with which the person is familiar makes everything more transparent and easier to understand and remember.

When referring to a person, the name of the person should be used on every occasion. Pronouns are a terrible choice. Pronouns denote a lack of connectivity to the person we're talking to, but also, pronouns make the conversation cold and unsparked from the outset. It's hard to cook a steak in a cold oven, especially if we've frozen the meat.

The best way to ask someone’s name is to:

Demonstrate respect and politeness when asking.
Avoid terms like “First name,” “second name,” “middle name,”” forename,” “surname,” etc.
At first, it might be, “What is your full name, please?”
It may then be useful to ask, “What do you want me/us to call you?”.

The next step would be to use simple language and short sentences, not because you can’t use academic vocabulary enriched by idiomatic language. The goal is to eliminate ambiguity and make things clear at first glance without extra clarifications or notes and with minimal effort. Still, it’s a great skill to understand technical jargon, especially within a multi-flavored team of specialists where nurturing mutual understanding is the number one objective.

Being alert to non-verbal clues to miscommunication helps understand what's implied, e.g., puzzled looks, knitted eyebrows, downcast eyes, and long pauses.

In a 2015 study, Kyle Brink of Western Michigan University and Robert Costigan of St John Fisher College discovered that 76% of undergraduate business programmes in the United States prioritised teaching presentation skills, while only 11% emphasised listening. This focus appeared to prepare business students more for delivering beautiful speeches at the conference than engaging in conversations, which could have implications. Another research conducted by Dotan Castro from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and his colleagues indicated that when supervisors actively listened to their team members, it boosted the employees' creativity and their sense of psychological safety. Listening is as important as speech, sometimes even more critical (e.g., by reflecting on people's thoughts more straightforwardly, we may build a connection or win a contract).

Enhanced Management Environment by Succinct Communication

It's difficult to know every detail of people's lives, ways of work, and communication approaches. It is even tougher to transmit thoughts in the proper way without corruption of the initial idea. Some need help depicting their own thoughts in a way other than an overcomplicated manner. Some people disperse frustration and anger when facing communication gaps. It's better not to assume that because a person has difficulty communicating, they have difficulty understanding what is said. On the other hand, the ability to speak with apparent fluency may disguise difficulties in understanding. It's important to make an instant feedback loop when any concerns or misunderstandings appear.

Dial Feedback for Confirmation

The systematic feedback received matters. By listening to the person and asking for feedback, we ensure understanding and cement the ground for the following discussion. Feedback should also be given by mirroring what the person is trying to explain in simple language and terms. It’s not the best to say, “I have heard what you say.” This will not convince the person that they have been listened to. It is better to summarise and repeat what the person told you. The affirmation helps someone feel respected and understood, and moreover, it helps to build trust that time spent on this communication is not wasted.

It is also a good idea to check understanding by asking the person to repeat back what they think has been said. Do not ask, “Do you understand?”. People might wrongly believe they have understood or be reluctant to admit they have not. Instead, we may ask how a person feels about what we’re talking about and the pros and cons they see in the outlined statements. Open conversations diverged with multiple options are much easier to navigate and follow.

Feedback is an excellent mechanism for fixing the communication's bullet points (main notes). But there are other things we should take care of. The appropriate meeting setup is equally important. If the setup fails, it's hard to fix the first impression later. The image of the inappropriate planner will be implanted.

How to Set Up Effective Meetings for Better Communication and Results

Given the time and energy invested in meetings, the returns to running them better are high.

Meetings are time-consuming, even wasteful from someone's standpoint, resourceful, tedious (or intimidating), and annoying. That might be true for some people, while others say the opposite. However, the middle ground is that meetings are essential to business, work, and life. We're trying to minimise the efforts meetings require with maximum outcomes. That's only sometimes possible, but it's worth trying some tricks.

Did you know that ensuring meeting documents are accessible, readable, and offered in advance of the discourse may prove necessary support for reading and understanding the agenda and even speed up the discussion a few times? That is obvious, but the intention of sharing the background of the meeting is not just to prepare everyone for the caucus. But to ensure that people are treated with respect to their time by all participants and are not expected to come (of course, with beforehand notification) if the matter of the meeting isn't crucial for and in regards to them.

In such matters, the confirmation of the timetable and the following checks should be made to be sure that everyone is suitable for the suggested time. It’s bad to interrupt someone’s lunch, email writing, or preparation for the call with the customer.

There are tricky parts to the schedule. Rarely do we take into account the person’s actual arrival time at the meeting, so the start scheduled for 2:30 pm may be deferred at 2:35 or even more depending on when people realise that the meeting is going. Here, small talk, gossip, and just a casual conversation could take place while the rest of the people are coming. Chats make everyone less nervous and more focused on the meeting instead of the last thing they have done before.

Suppose we need any equipment, e.g., for the presentation, online call with someone, or other hardware. Checking whether everything is working is crucial before the meeting. Also important (especially in long-standing negotiations) to ensure that fresh drinking water is available and that the room won't be too crowded, hot, or cold. Try to avoid background noise during the meeting, e.g., using a printer, loud air-conditioning, or a room next to a noisy corridor. The more intense and crucial the discussion is, the less distraction should be in the area.

Starting the meeting by explaining and introducing every person within the hearing room isn’t a bad idea. It’s making everyone more aware of who is who and why they are there.

At the same time, it’s important to combine active speaking, listening, and breaks. The ideal time span for speaking and listening is around 18 minutes (due to Alf Rehn, Professor of Innovation, Design, and Management at the University of Southern Denmark). Early signs of the person’s loss of concentration may not be apparent to everyone, so it’s better to have breaks included in the agenda.

We should be alert to the need for unscheduled breaks (the need may be urgent for someone). It's a good idea to set ground rules from the outset and raise a hand if any critical need arises. Giving the people a brief rest is sometimes sufficient. The meeting may be curbed if the participators become seriously distressed or exhausted. The worst scenario is to repeat the same meeting because nobody can recall the deal after hours of powwow.

Ideally, the need for additional breaks, shorter interim sessions, and a slower communication style will have been identified in advance, as this will extend the estimated length of the meeting. If insufficient time is allowed, there may be a temptation to cut necessary breaks or speed up the process, which may cause additional stress for people. Don't scrap the plan without justified needs.

Gossip, discourse, speech, or interrogation. Those help a little to get the right answer.

How to Lead Effective Meetings Through Clear Communication

Active listening is important. The trait is to ask appropriately and clearly as well. Some believe that managers must control meetings, as the implicit rules require. But the truth is that there is little control over how people could conduct themself. Demeanour is always uniquely stuck to the person and could vary. What could be controlled is the meeting agenda and time. The following are hints for doing so.

The people’s speech must be adduced as effectively and fairly as possible.
The manager should intervene if needed, even if any of the team does not, but do that appropriately, gently, and carefully.
The manner, tenor, tone, language, and duration of speech should be appropriate to the audience.
On average, people can understand the basics and give answers they believe to be correct, but it’s hard to get the point of quantum concepts or load-balancer specifics if you’re twenty years in marketing.
Statements, especially questions, are better to be simple and contain only one matter.
There should be no compound phrases, questions, or both.
The directive leading questions, also known as “tag” questions, are attractive and sound assertive but rarely help to connect to the people.
A directive leading question (e.g.,” You are idle today, aren’t you?”) has been found to elicit significantly less accurate responses than a non-directive leading question (e.g., “Are you without tasks at hand?”). Closed leading questions, where the question suggests an answer (e.g., “Would you like an extra duty for your position?”), should also be strictly limited, and the responses may be of limited value. Other assertions, such as “Isn’t it a fact that..” and “Is that right?” give undue emphasis to the suggestion.
Questions should be in chronological order or in another structure advised by the manager, such as by topic.
Questions containing negatives are harder to understand.
Managers are usually alert to double negatives, but difficulties can arise from single negatives, negative forms (e.g., “incorrect,” “unhappy”), and concealed negatives (e.g., “unless,” “superficially,” “apparently”).
It’s not the best idea to keep repeating questions, as this may suggest that the answers are not believed and by itself encourage a change.
The same question can be asked later to check that consistent answers are being given.
“Force choice” questions.
Make them more variant. For example, “Have you ever been bored of your job? Yes? No?”) omit the correct answer, so it is preferable to offer an open-ended option as well (e.g., “Your thoughts”).

The interesting finding is that some research shows that telling people they do not have to agree with the boss’s suggestions if the boss says they are incorrect helps them build a more reliable rapport. However, the speech and meeting conduct are not enough to understand each other. The meetings, calls, and feedback all converge in the notes, summaries, reports, or other kinds of communiqué, such as emails.

How to Write Clear and Effective Emails for Better Communication

Sorry for the delay in responding to your email. I had an irrational fear of opening it!

The writing and email techniques are the independent branch of art. But we can use some bits of advice to make our electronic letter less scary and more digestible.

First things first, when composing letters, these adjustments may help for many people:

1. Short sentences and simple punctuation.

Instead of writing, “In light of the imminent celebration commemorating the decennial milestone of the Sales Department, we find it prudent to reschedule our forthcoming meeting. Consequently, we kindly request that you inform us of a more convenient time for you in the forthcoming week.” We may simplify. “Please let me know if Monday next week is a good time to reschedule our call. I’m afraid this week is occupied in my calendar.”

2. Uncomplicated language.

The easier it is to read the email, the better. At the same time, uncomplicated doesn’t mean without bolds, italics, underlines, and other highlights. Just focus on simplicity and easy readings without too many depictions and expressions.

3. Avoid all jargon.

Once again. Let's take something technical, for example, "The initial DataBase structure lacks efficient capacity. We suggest that the clustered index replace and change the types of data UUID columns to make the hotfix based on the synthetic tests." Well, that's a nice puzzle that frustrates most people (unless you have some database knowledge), and it may outline the issue and suggest a solution. The problem is that no one except the writer understands what is being written. Let's try to focus on the solution resolution instead of jargon, "We've found the issue in DataBase. The preliminary solution is clear and should take around a week to make and prepare it for the release."

There are more cheats to use to make our writing clearer.

Using “you” and “we” rather than the third person.
Writing rather than spelling numbers.
Using bullet points for key points.
Using sub-headings and allow white space between sections.
Using larger print, clear typeface, greater spacing and colored paper.
Using photos/drawings/concrete symbols to support text.
Being careful about the loss of formatting on emails.
Using an easy language paragraph that summarises the email.
Avoiding referring to people only by their status, e.g., “Owner”, or “Manager” but use their actual names if appropriate.

The pieces of advice above could assist and improve communication, but that’s not a warrant to make every discussion crystal clear and win each negotiation. The essential factors of success are laid in our perception. How deep we want to be understood. All in all, we may just try to do our best to build succinct and clear communication. And every failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor (Truman Capote).

References

Enhanced Management Environment by Succinct Communication

Why Does Understanding Matter?