I under-communicated, and it cost me.
I was feeling embarrassed. It was too late. My CEO looked puzzled and so did the Head of Product. I could feel the tension building like a laser beam through the little green dot of the webcam. I hadn't prepared every single person in the meeting for what the meeting was about. And now it was going down in flames, fast.
I learned the hard way to never repeat this mistake again.
Repeat until it's a reality
Because if you don't, what chances does it have of becoming a reality?
Even in our personal lives we need to repeat what we say to ourselves many times. Do you know how often I vowed to never over-eat, only to over-eat the same day? How about all the people who write their goals and never look at them? The New Year's Resolution folks who set the resolution once and forget about it in a month?
Reality requires real leverage to change. Sometimes, the leverage is time & the world of natural effects that evolve the reality. But everywhere else, humanity has had to be specific about the outcomes it wants to have. The reality doesn't care though. So to put our stamp, we must do the work.
We grapple with the loss & acquisition of control in our lives all the time. Sometimes, there's nothing we can do. But it's foolish to lose the control by not doing the least. Communication is one of those things. Like glue, it binds the parts that need to stay together to form the model of the reality we want.
Here are some things I remind myself to do now to avoid this ever happening again.
#1. Over-do communication.
It's easy to decide that the communication has happened. You know it in your head, you've said it to someone - job done now, right? Wrong.
Start early and figure out who needs to hear it.
Improve your message as you go.
Mention it at every opportunity you get.
Ask questions that help clarify if the person got it.
#2. Communicate in various forms & in several places.
People learn in different ways, and you're trying to teach them something.
Use different modes of communication
Communicate it with pictures, communicate it with numbers
Communicate it over email, on paper, on whiteboards, in Slack
#3. Build your own conviction.
You might be asking yourself: do I need to do this for EVERYTHING? No.
Some things, if they are simple or not important, you can let go.
What's important... Well, that's up to you to decide.
Often, we have a prioritisation problem, not a communication problem.
If I have 10 things on my mind, I'll omit 9 and speak about 1 of them. Then next time, I'll talk about 1 of the other 9. This would make my overall communication to that person about ALL THE 10 things.
If we want it to work, we must become a boring person who keeps reiterating the same message. For a creative person who's also not sure of which thing will work, it's painful. But it's essential to choose and go with the one that you have the most conviction in.
It's not just about the idea, but how many people share it and want to make it a reality.
If my CEO & Head of Product had shared the same idea I had, we would have had a stellar product discovery process by now. But that reality wasn't meant to be.
But you don't need to repeat my mistakes. Get clear on what you want and let your voice be heard, as many times as necessary.