How to communicate precisely and concisely
As an immigrant, I often feel there is room to improve in this area.
As an immigrant to America, I sometimes feel communication is a disadvantage when it comes to work. Until one day, I found out my American-born colleagues also have such problems. Then I think these are the skills both immigrants and natives need to practice.
There are different scenarios when it comes to solving this problem.
- You are trying to make a point in conversion.
You can make the point upfront. Then, based on the context, you can give reasons or data why your point will work.
E.g I think solution A will work based on the data I have.
Keep the sentence short, one point at a time.
2. You are trying to point out the flaws in other people’s statements.
E.g The proposed solution you want will not work because the assumption you made has a couple of constraints. What I propose is that we need to do it the other way.
3. Somebody tries to ask you a question.
You need to understand the question first.
a/ Is it a question that challenges your statement? Should you defend your position or not? You need to be open-minded about any questions because it will make your logic more robust.
b/ Is this question a clarification question? Should you re-iterate what you have said?
c/Is this a helpful question for you to add to your approach?
People will ask hard questions on Amazon because they value feedback mechanisms that make every single tech decision transparent and solid.
The special part of technical discussion is all about logic. The logic revolves mainly around how your assumption leads to your statement. Any tradeoff you have to make. What edge case did you omit? Did you see the overall picture? Do we need to solve this problem right now? Are there any existing solutions that you can use? Do you want to build the same block as others? Is your approach practical?
Several key principles apply when you try to say something.
- Be specific and practical. The more specific you are, the more sympathetic the listener will be. The person you are trying to influence will know what the next steps are.
- With the goal in mind. You need to have a visionary picture in your head of the end goal you want to achieve so that other people not only know the next specific step but also the overall picture. We need to put important topics and points first.
- Omit the details. This is often a routine issue for newly-joined team members. We are nervous, so we want to provide as much information as possible for listeners so they can better understand us. The opposite is the right way. You directly ask the person what you want — information or permission — and then you give reasons why you want it and how you will use it.
- Be concise, one point at a time. Sometimes you want to make multiple points at the same time, and the audience will get lost in the sea of information. A better way is to make one point clearly and with reason. One clear point is better than multiple unclear points.
- Brave to be silent. It’s totally ok to give silence in the conversion. It will give the audience room to think.
- Listen first. We need to have empathy for the speaker. We need to put ourselves in other people’s shoes. Why do they have such concerns, and what makes them make such a statement?
In summary:
Besides the strategies I mentioned above, observing how other people articulate their points is also a good way to learn. Software development is a team effort. How to use communication to direct a group of engineers to finish the project and how to push back, defend your points, nudge people, influence others, and collaborate with others All of this depends on the efficiency of your communication.
