The Art of Clear Communication

Introduction

Throughout my long journey of fifteen years as a software developer, project manager, and team leader, I was faced with many issues. Along the way, I've noticed that many of them were caused simply due to the lack of decent communication skills and it could easily be avoided. I became so interested that I read multiple books on communication theory and even completed some certificates.

Finally, I got some free time to write this short and limited article, the purpose of which is to share my knowledge with you, and hopefully improve at least a little bit of communication quality of your work and also private life.

Let's begin!

What is Communication?

Communication is something we all do, but what does it mean? It's the art of passing a message from one person to another, typically speaking or writing. Have you ever wondered who's in charge of making communication work? Is it the person sending the message, or the one receiving it?

It's a common belief that if someone doesn't understand what you are saying, it is his fault. But this is incorrect. The sender is responsible for sending a clear and understandable message. The sender knows what and to whom he is communicating.

To clear things up, let's start by breaking down the basics of communication: the audience, the purpose, and the constraints.

Audience

An audience is a person or group of persons to whom you want to communicate a specific message. It is an answer to the question "to whom are you communicating?". Without a clear understanding of your audience, your words might not be understood correctly.

Real-Life Example

Imagine a situation when a bug in the code causes a critical production issue which needs to be resolved as soon as possible. What would you say to the developer and what to the
manager? Probably you would not have the same conversation with them. At least I hope so.

A typical conversation with a colleague developer would be something like: "Hey, there is an "exception" caused in "class" which occurred in a specific "use case". I reviewed the code, but I'm unable to pinpoint the exact issue, can you please take a look"?

While conversation with the manager would be completely different and something like: "Hi there, we are resolving the issue and anticipate having it resolved by today, around 4:00 PM".

The audience Software developer needs completely different information than the audience Manager. The developer needs to receive detailed technical information to resolve the issue while the manager needs information needed in communication with customers. Sending the same message to those two audiences would result in confusion and possible misunderstanding of the situation.

Types of Audiences

There are more audiences but for the simplicity of this article, I will cover only the following:

1. General audiences
2. Managers and decision-makers
3. Expert

General audience is not specialized in a particular topic. They are usually interested in a topic just for their enjoyment. Provide them with practical information, use anecdotes, examples, etc. It is important to not include too many details. Communication with the general audience about the above real-life example would be “Hey, there is a production issue. We are resolving it right now, but until then, functionality X does not work”. Practical information without too many details.

Managers and decision makers audience is more than in detail interested in effects, costs and timelines. Rather than detailed explanation, provide them summary reports and recommendations. If details are required, provide them as appendix.

Expert audience have extended expertise in specific domain. Provide them with additional information and enough details.

Purpose

I found out that many meetings are quite hard to follow due to a lack of a clear definition of the communication purpose. During the conversation, I always ask myself “What do we want to accomplish?” Are we seeking a solution, clarifying the present situation or investigating why we are in the present situation? Without clear communication, the lines between these aspects become blurred and the meeting can turn into a confusing discussion.

For this reason, it is important to establish clear communication purposes. It is common to mix different purposes within the same meeting, but it is important to have clear boundaries between them. By doing so, a meeting will result in more effective discussions.

The purpose is an answer to the question “What do we want to accomplish?”. In communication theory, there are four basic purposes:

1. Persuasion
2. Exposition
3. Narration
4. Description

Persuasion is convincing others to feel, act or think differently than they currently do. It is presenting how things could be. This is usually used when presenting solutions for specific issues. The solution must be presented clearly and understandable to the audience.

Exposition is presenting the objective facts with no subjective details if possible. This form is used when presenting the knowledge gap between you and the audience (meeting minute, technical presentations, etc.). For example, if you want to present the difference between two frameworks, you would typically present advantages and disadvantages of each framework. It is important that information is well organized (e.g., advantage / disadvantage table).

Narration is presenting a chronology of events that led to the current state. It is important to include only needed details and represent how event occurred in time. Typically, usage would be explaining what series of events caused missing the deadline.

Description is presenting a detailed picture of how things looks like. You should include needed details and also present the big picture to the audience. The most typically usage of this form is product documentation.

Real-Life Example

The project is behind schedule. Managers organize meetings with business analytics and lead developers to discuss what to do next. When communication isn't clear, things can get a bit chaotic. Developers might want to brainstorm solutions, business analysts might be after a clear picture of the functionality current state, and managers could be looking at timelines and ways to prevent the same issue in future. And some of the participants will just be lost in conversation.

A better way is to establish an agenda and clear communication rules. The first step is to draw a clear picture of the present state using description purpose. If it is important to understand the series of events leading to the present state, then use narration purpose. Typically, the next step is proposing a solution proposal using persuasion purpose. Hopefully, there is more than one solution that should be communicated using exposition purpose.

Constraints

Constraints are simply limitations in communication. I will touch only the most obvious one - time. It happened way too often that meeting is scheduled with a very tight time frame. This results in much lower focus and attention, particularly because participants might have other meetings or tasks lined up. And I'm sure many of us can relate to the frustration when a meeting, especially one right before lunch, ends up longer than expected. And yes, hungry people will often agree with everything just to wrap things up and head to lunch.

The Power of Listening

Effective communication isn't just about speaking. It's also about being an excellent listener. Furthermore, listening without interrupting the speaker is not only showing respect but also gaining new information. I see way too often that smart and educated people are silenced by loud ones. The company which allows itself to be led by loud individuals, rather than those who have knowledge quickly runs into problems.

When you listen, you will understand the people and you will be able to read between the lines. Also, you will understand the communication patterns of your closest colleagues. I had the privilege to work with an excellent developer who tended to underestimate the time needed to complete tasks. He would always say is 80% completed and promised to finish by the next morning. In reality, he usually missed those deadlines. His 80% were usually more like 50% to 60%. I was stressed because of the delayed project plan and he was stressed because tasks were not completed. And for me, stress is a clear indicator of issues that should be somehow avoided.

I was trying for months to change him but eventually, I realized that he consistently provided valuable information. It was just a matter of interpreting it correctly. After this realization, I got the information needed for adjusting the project plan and reducing stress for both myself and my colleague. Yes, I’m a persistent guy and I didn’t give up on his communication patterns. I continuously corrected and advised him and after some time, he started to provide correct information. Today, he is a successful project leader and I'm proud that I was part of his journey.

History

• 6^th August, 2023: Initial version