Humans, We Have A Problem

What if everybody was capable of mind reading? I probably wouldn’t be writing this.

From my not-so-long experiences in working with other people, especially in groups, I have had numerous occasions of serious communication gaps or sometimes, even the complete lack of it. The work-from-home (WFH) model has made async communications prevalent and the communications have become too async that they never happen sometimes. This is partly a rant, but also a great learning opportunity.

Has there ever been a time when you don’t receive the answers you want from teammates? Below is a scenario that happens quite frequently.

Putting myself in other’s shoes, let me tell you what I think. There are 2 possible explanations to this:

1. “Nobody has replied, why should I?”
2. “Somebody has already replied, why should I?”

Do you see the common problem? Everybody is constantly stuck between the 2 scenarios and the “why should I” completely cuts the flow of information (team work, wut?!?!). When did opinions start to feel so irrelevant! Put your thoughts out there and see how they drive the project.

To this end, I’d like to say that the answer to “what is the worse that could happen?”, is not a “no” or a “idk”. It is being left on read.

On the other hand, I often see people failing to communicate progress or delays. What is wrong in saying “hey, I need more time to complete this”? It is okay to be wrong, it is okay to be late (with reasonable excuse); so remove your filters and communicate. It doesn’t help when you keep people in the dark, especially when working in a team.

After all, communication is key.