140 Characters.
A good limit to your ideas…
One of the things I like the most from Twitter is the 140 characters limit. Why? Because it makes you think the content before writing it. It makes you focus on what you want to say and find the best way to communicate it, in a short and precisely way.
This may seems silly but it always draw my attention how people struggles to expose their ideas clearly. In my day-to-day work as a Project Manager in a Software Company I usually ask the same questions: — What impediment do you have? — What is the goal for this task? — What is the status of this activity? — How can I help you?
Those are questions that most of the time requires a short and concise answer. Sadly, most of the times I ask them I find myself in a messy conversation trying to understand what is the other person trying to say and working as a moderator to ensure all the persons involved understands the same idea. Focus on what is important is not only a good practice for software development but also a good way to communicate your ideas. Want to write an email? Want to communicate a risk? Want to report a status? Want to ask for help? Just take a few minutes, focus on what are you trying to communicate and think before doing it…
Product Owners should be able to communicate their needs clearly. Team members should be able to share their ideas in a way everyone can understand. CEOs should be able to communicate the company’s strategy and main goals properly. Project Managers should be able to expose priorities and risks in a right way.
Imagine a Customer <losing money> because he didn’t understand that <some generic risk> required an <urgent and important action>. And a developer wasting a lot of effort in <some generic task> because the <generic requirement> wasn’t clear enough. Or a team member making some <bad decision> because the <generic goal> of the Project wasn’t clear neither. Those are direct consequences of not communicating your ideas properly.
Working on your skill to communicate your ideas should be as important as learning a new programming language or a new framework. A clear communication is one of the most desirables (and underrated) skill in every team member.
