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While I usually prefer the brief message as well one tenant of remote work that I learned a while back is “better to over-communicate than to under communicate.

by seer 5y ago

While I usually prefer the brief message as well one tenant of remote work that I learned a while back is “better to over-communicate than to under communicate. Adding a bit of context to your messages might seem like unnecessary padding, but people loose context, multitask, and read stuff asynchronously. Restoring that context helps a lot. As for the small talk, I think its very important what information you communicate. If you say “how was your weekend” what you usually are communicating is “I have no idea who you are, and want to warm up to your graces so you are more likely to do the work I actually want you to do” People hate that. But if you ask them “how is your dog doing? I’ve heard it got its ear bit off that time hope they’re ok” Now you’ve communicated “I’m actually interested in who you are as a person, and what your life is. The work bit is nice to have but secondary” People do pick up on that, especially if you do it _without_ work requests from time to time. You trigger all the “they are part of my tribe” responses and will get your answers much quicker later. It’s just very important to care about the people behind the handles and avatars, and establish connections with them.

locallost 5y ago
I worked very briefly with someone who said the same: better to over-communicate. In practice this meant that they liked to write a lot, and not really read.
- seer 5y ago
  You are correct. I also do like to write, though I don’t think I’ve reduced my reading by any means. Writing itself is an art form. Its important to have tldr; sections, to consider your audience and not to just braindump and call it a day. At the end of the day though most orgs live or die by how aligned are their members, and how tenacious they are. Both of which require information to flow through it. And I think its way easier to tone things down/ignore/filter if you have too much than to try to infer “what other people actually mean”.

by seer 5y ago

locallost 5y ago

I worked very briefly with someone who said the same: better to over-communicate. In practice this meant that they liked to write a lot, and not really read.

seer 5y ago
You are correct. I also do like to write, though I don’t think I’ve reduced my reading by any means. Writing itself is an art form. Its important to have tldr; sections, to consider your audience and not to just braindump and call it a day. At the end of the day though most orgs live or die by how aligned are their members, and how tenacious they are. Both of which require information to flow through it. And I think its way easier to tone things down/ignore/filter if you have too much than to try to infer “what other people actually mean”.