Speaking through the wire — the art of remote communication
With the recent global pandemic, we’ve had to rapidly embrace digital connectivity as the new normal. Headlines like the 1000% increase in video calls using Microsoft Teams, an 80% increase in paid Slack customers in Q1, and a 50% increase in users on Zoom in the last three weeks — all show that our appetite for digital communication has never been higher.
Yet our comprehension of the impact of this digital shift is limited. We’re seeing people working longer hours and higher levels of burnout. There is hidden anxiety that inherently exists with remote work⁷, and that’s before we factor in the anxiety of record unemployment levels.
So the question is — how can we effectively communicate in this age of remote working?
The human challenges of knowledge transfer
Before we look at how to communicate, we should first look at why we communicate — to better understand exactly what is we’re trying to accomplish.
In the business context, we are typically communicating to share knowledge. Be it a leader providing vision & direction, or peers collaborating on a piece of work — we’re sharing knowledge to create a greater outcome than what is possible by an individual working alone.
Unfortunately for us — humans are inherently fragmented in our knowledge. We struggle to take knowledge from our heads and out through our mouths and hands without losing context and content².
As Dave Snowden explored in his piece on Rendering Knowledge², there are seven key principles underpinning Knowledge Management that are a result of our natural human flaws.
To communicate effectively, we must be mindful of these principles — and carefully consider how the methods and tooling we choose to communicate can affect knowledge capture and transfer.
What is effective communication?
Effective communication focuses on the transfer of knowledge — both the explicit (documentation, instructions, models) and tacit knowledge (mastery, skill, and unconscious knowledge)⁸.
It’s the traversing the Knowledge Spiral⁹ —turning the hidden knowledge into something consumable by the audience, and in turn helping them create new implicit knowledge.
It’s the art of turning the ideas stuck in the back of our mind (tacit knowledge), into clear and comprehensive understanding through written or spoken knowledge transfer (explicit knowledge)
The power of verbal communication for developing tacit knowledge
The challenges of explicit knowledge are well known in Agile software development, which is why Ron Jeffries came up with the now-famous Card-Conversation-Confirmation¹⁰ approach to conveying needs between customers and software teams.
In this — he stresses just how important conversation is to conveying meaning, noting that written (explicit) knowledge isn’t effective at conveying a full and complete understanding.
For example, changing the word stressed in a sentence can have a profound impact on its meaning. In a classic example, the sentence ‘I never said she stole my money’ can have its meaning altered significantly by simply stressing a different word when said:
If we were to convey the message above to our team over instant messaging or email, we wouldn’t know which of the seven interpretations the person reading it would comprehend it as.
Written (explicit) knowledge transfer — be it instant messaging or email — is always risky for this matter. We need to find better ways to convey our intent in this new working-at-home age.
The knowledge is hidden in the message
We’re currently in a period where we’ve lost little ability to access explicit knowledge within our organisations — with documentation readily available on corporate intranets, documentation repositories, and external publications.
Instead, where we are having challenges is in our ability to transfer the tacit knowledge. As we saw in principle #7 of Rendering Knowledge²
The process of taking things from our heads, to our mouths (speaking it) to our hands (writing it down) involves loss of content and context. It is always less than it could have been as it is increasingly codified.
This stems from Dr Albert Mehrabian’s findings on Communication Theory⁵, where he found just how powerful how we say the words, and the expression behind them become in transferring knowledge.
So with our newfound understanding of how knowledge and emotion are transferred — how can we apply these learnings to the digital collaboration tools we’re now using?
Not all communication methods are created equal
To make our knowledge transfer effective in the remote working age — we need to look at both the effectiveness of the communication channel, along with the richness of communication that the channel provides.
Explicit knowledge like documents, emails, and instant messaging has limited richness and effectiveness — where the face-to-face interaction of video chat allows us to communicate our emotions, and help drive the spiral of turning
Quite simply, we need to remember and apply the Agile Value of Individuals & Interactions over Processes & Tools — focusing on tools that enable us to convey emotions and inflection, along with the explicit knowledge we share.
Stop instant messaging/email, start video conferencing
Sure, the convenience of instant messaging/email can be alluring — especially to those of us less extroverted. It’s all too easy to fire off a few rushed words into slack, overlooking how they’ll be interpreted on the other side.
To truly be effective and rich in our communication we need to be able to share our knowledge and emotions freely. And the best way to do this is to live the Agile value of individuals and interactions over processes and tools.
We need to bias our communication to video conferencing tools over instant messaging and email — creating the right environment for conveying our knowledge, emotions, and intent in a clear and comprehensive manner.
Step away from your instant messaging tool — and book that video call.
References
- Ambler. S (Unknown), Communication on Agile Software Teams, http://www.agilemodeling.com/
- Snowden. D (2008), Rendering Knowledge, cognitive-edge.com
- Csikszentmihalyi. M (1998), Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life, Basic Books; 1 edition
- Cho. J, Lee. H, Kim. H (2019), Effects of Communication-Oriented Overload in Mobile Instant Messaging on Role Stressors, Burnout, and Turnover Intention in the Workplace, International Journal of Communication
- Mehrabian. A Phd (1981), Silent Messages: implicit communication of emotions and attitudes, Belmont, Calif. : Wadsworth Pub. Co.
- Rennecker. J, Godwin. J (2005), Theorizing the Unintended Consequences of Instant Messaging for Worker Productivity, Case Western Reserve University
- Healy. P (2017), The Hidden Anxiety of Remote Work, Medium.com
- Wolman. J (2016), Why I share — tactic vs explicit knowledge, Medium.com
- Ikujiro. N, Hirotaka. T (1995), The knowledge creating company: how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation, New York: Oxford University Press
- Jeffries. R (2001), Essential XP: Card, Conversation, Confirmation, ronjeffries.com
