Communicate !!

By | 9:27 AM 3 comments

Over the past few days, I've had this recurring realization that big problems are solved by simple communication. I'm not talking of course of the soapy revelations of love that you are intending to make to your neighbour. I'm talking of simple things. We live in a web of communication mediums and yet use them so poorly. I think the humance race is ever-evolving new ways to communicate but has forgotten that it isnt the medium that needs fixing but the user.

Today I had the chance to look back at how we used to work a year back. Full of "terms" and diagrams, it was a mess .. a communication nightmare. To make communication easier, we decided to bastardise .. i mean standardize the terms. Week after week, discussions just kept piling up. End of the day, the CEO decided to cut through the noise and explained what he wanted in 8 slides. That started a new way of working at Rediff.

Six months after that, we work in a much better way. Terms are out, simplicity is in. The focus is on understanding rather than discussing. I just need to tell my Tech boys what i mean and it becomes instantly clear what the whole point is. Business rules aren't a forced torture anymore.

But more recently I've had the opportunity to try this technique on newer and much dearer issues. Trust me, they work. You just need to ask and be clear about it. Things surprisingly become more easy just by getting everyone to understand the thing with more clarity. So meetings are good .. you just need the right kind of meetings.

Cheers,

KP