Three Big Techniques to Improve Communication.

The global economy is an adventure. Each day the invisible hand of the market plays tricks on us. Customers make new demands, the cost of raw materials changes, and war could break out, disrupting supply chains. Each morning is a new challenge. Dealing with those challenges is the job of most business professionals and is not easy. The job's most challenging part is ensuring that others understand what needs to doing and why. Today on the blog, I point out some helpful communication techniques to make your coaching and scrum mastery more successful. 

The Big Three –

David Plotz, Emily Bazelon, and John Dickerson of the Slate Political Gabfest pointed out that Ronald Regan was successful as a leader because everyone who worked at his White House knew three big themes that made up their government mission. Those themes were cutting taxes, reducing regulations, and fighting communism. These 'big three' governed every decision people made in the Regan White House, so if you had not spoken to the president in months, as long as you were following the big three, you were helping the president. 

Today business people refer to these simple themes as Objectives and Key Results, or OKRs for short. Provide simple open-ended goals which can be measured and prioritized, and then let people figure out how to make them happen. It worked for Regan until John Poindexter and Oliver North earned positions of authority and responsibility, but that is a story for another blog. 

Repeat yourself – 

If you repeat yourself enough, even the most dense people you work with will understand. Being redundant is not tiresome in business or leadership; it is a necessary tool for success. According to Time magazine, repetition is one of the key ways to develop long-term memory of skills. Sometimes you must recall memory up to thirty times to remain in your long-term memory. It means you must repeatedly say the same things when you talk with others. 

When I was serving on a team as a scrum master, we were struggling with production errors. Soon, I began using the word 'quality' in each conversation with developers, product owners, and managers. I would ask during retrospectives about how we could improve quality. During stand-ups, I would stress unit testing to improve quality. Even during product demos, I pointed out quality improvements no matter how small. After six months, the developers teased me during a stand-up meeting, saying they were having a quality day and had metrics to prove it. Everyone had a good laugh at my expense, and it was clear that the team normalized my message. The technique must have worked because the number of production defects declined significantly. 

Start and End with Why –

For years business leaders have instructed others how to work. Today, we must communicate what to work on in an information economy and why. Remember Ronald Regan's big three, and everyone understood why the themes were essential and were allowed to figure out how to accomplish those goals. 

Tell people why something needs to doing and what is in it for them. You will see if they understand what you need to do at that point. Giving a reason why something has to happen is the best way to achieve buy-in for creative professionals. 

Create a big three, repeat yourself, and start with why are the three communication techniques that will make you more successful as a coach and scrum master. 

I will be away for a week on vacation, and I will see everyone after July 24th. 

Until next time.