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Importance of Communication

In general, people think communication relates to when writing or having a discussion; however, it is more than that: Priorities and deadlines. Meetings Requirements Disagreements between team members Priorities and Deadlines When a team or even an individual has a clear understanding of priorities and deadlines, it lets them: Work on the most essential items for the Business. They can move to the next item without input when completed or blocked. The team will know what is next on the action list when leadership is unavailable. Ignore and escalate work that is not part of the priority or deadline. Unclear Priorities When priorities are unclear or change often, this can cause stress for teams or individuals. There is a high chance that deadlines will be missed and extended. If every request is considered highest, important, or business-critical, it will dilute the importance of having priorities. Team members will start ignoring priorities and working on items they enjoy more. Having a definition of priorities across the organization will make sure everyone is aligned. P1 (Critical): These are your “drop everything” tasks. They are urgent and vital, often involving crisis management or critical deadlines. Customers having difficulty accessing the system(s). E-commerce site and can not check items. To on-board a new client, we need to support XYZ. P2 (High): Important tasks that are not immediately urgent. These often contribute significantly to long-term goals. A new line of Business. Improving the overall system to support future growth. 3rd party integration. P3 (Medium): Tasks that are urgent but less important. They require attention but do not contribute as much to overall objectives. Improvement of user experience (internal and external). New feature(s) that bring some value. P4 (Low): Neither urgent nor highly important. These tasks should be done but can be scheduled for later. Improving logging or metadata for troubleshooting P5 (Lowest): Tasks with minimal impact that can be eliminated if necessary. Minor UI improvements (colour, spacing, spelling errors) Missing the deadline Most people get nervous that they will not make a deadline and try to do anything, not raise it until the due date. It is usually due to the fear of getting into trouble, feeling inadequate to do the task, or thinking people will judge. However, waiting until the due date causes many issues: Putting your Lead, PO, and manager in a bad spot with the Business. It also reduces the options they can offer. This causes other team members or teams to miss their deadlines. We lost the chance for team members to support you A loss of trust can occur between team members. However, if they raise the risk sooner: The team lead, PO, and manager have more options to use. Team members can help jump on and support each other. Other priorities can be adjusted. Credibility begins to build. Do not just raise, "I am not going to make the deadline." Provide context into why: What is the current status of the tasks? What is causing the doubt that the deadline is not achievable? What support is needed? Moving Deadlines We all know the deadlines can move, but if all initial deadlines are unrealistic or move multiple times, teams will start not trusting them and assume they will change. Leadership can be in a bad spot when the deadline can not be moved (i.e., Father/mother's Day). Here are some examples of sources that can cause deadlines to move. The Business does not clearly understand what it wants/needs. The Discovery phase is short or is happening at the same time the implementation is happening. Making decisions takes too long or too many chiefs in the kitchen. Business and management not listening to SME estimates. The estimates should still be challenged and understood. Ownership is not clear. Meetings As we know, meetings can be helpful or a waste of time depending on their size and organization. (I will not go into this here but in a future posting) However, how people communicate in the meeting will affect the effectiveness of the meeting. The way people act and communicate can make a big difference. Seen meetings that went sideways: Individuals were rude and disrespectful. Screaming and shooting. Naming calling. Taking over the meeting and making people feel dumb. Meetings are not safe space For example, I was in a meeting when 2 or 3 individuals presented possible solutions to a business problem. However, one of the team members attending the meeting disagreed with the solution: This is not how we present it here. You should have presented it like this. Why is it like this? It does not make a scene. The team member didn't read the supporting documentation like others, and the presenter had to do it during the meeting. Said, "I do not care about the deadlines. We should do it like this". The outcome of the meeting

Mar 13, 2025 - 03:57

In general, people think communication relates to when writing or having a discussion; however, it is more than that:

Priorities and deadlines.
Meetings
Requirements
Disagreements between team members

Priorities and Deadlines

When a team or even an individual has a clear understanding of priorities and deadlines, it lets them:

Work on the most essential items for the Business.
They can move to the next item without input when completed or blocked.
The team will know what is next on the action list when leadership is unavailable.
Ignore and escalate work that is not part of the priority or deadline.

Unclear Priorities

When priorities are unclear or change often, this can cause stress for teams or individuals. There is a high chance that deadlines will be missed and extended.

If every request is considered highest, important, or business-critical, it will dilute the importance of having priorities. Team members will start ignoring priorities and working on items they enjoy more.

Having a definition of priorities across the organization will make sure everyone is aligned.

P1 (Critical): These are your “drop everything” tasks. They are urgent and vital, often involving crisis management or critical deadlines.

Customers having difficulty accessing the system(s).
E-commerce site and can not check items.
To on-board a new client, we need to support XYZ.

P2 (High): Important tasks that are not immediately urgent. These often contribute significantly to long-term goals.

A new line of Business.
Improving the overall system to support future growth.
3rd party integration.

P3 (Medium): Tasks that are urgent but less important. They require attention but do not contribute as much to overall objectives.

Improvement of user experience (internal and external).
New feature(s) that bring some value.

P4 (Low): Neither urgent nor highly important. These tasks should be done but can be scheduled for later.

Improving logging or metadata for troubleshooting

P5 (Lowest): Tasks with minimal impact that can be eliminated if necessary.

Minor UI improvements (colour, spacing, spelling errors)

Missing the deadline

Most people get nervous that they will not make a deadline and try to do anything, not raise it until the due date. It is usually due to the fear of getting into trouble, feeling inadequate to do the task, or thinking people will judge.

However, waiting until the due date causes many issues:

Putting your Lead, PO, and manager in a bad spot with the Business.
It also reduces the options they can offer. This causes other team members or teams to miss their deadlines.
We lost the chance for team members to support you
A loss of trust can occur between team members.

However, if they raise the risk sooner:

The team lead, PO, and manager have more options to use.
Team members can help jump on and support each other.
Other priorities can be adjusted.
Credibility begins to build.

Do not just raise, "I am not going to make the deadline." Provide context into why:

What is the current status of the tasks?
What is causing the doubt that the deadline is not achievable?
What support is needed?

Moving Deadlines

We all know the deadlines can move, but if all initial deadlines are unrealistic or move multiple times, teams will start not trusting them and assume they will change. Leadership can be in a bad spot when the deadline can not be moved (i.e., Father/mother's Day).

Here are some examples of sources that can cause deadlines to move.

The Business does not clearly understand what it wants/needs.
The Discovery phase is short or is happening at the same time the implementation is happening.
Making decisions takes too long or too many chiefs in the kitchen.
Business and management not listening to SME estimates. The estimates should still be challenged and understood.
Ownership is not clear.

Meetings

As we know, meetings can be helpful or a waste of time depending on their size and organization. (I will not go into this here but in a future posting)

However, how people communicate in the meeting will affect the effectiveness of the meeting.

The way people act and communicate can make a big difference.

Seen meetings that went sideways:

Individuals were rude and disrespectful.
Screaming and shooting.
Naming calling.
Taking over the meeting and making people feel dumb.
Meetings are not safe space

For example, I was in a meeting when 2 or 3 individuals presented possible solutions to a business problem. However, one of the team members attending the meeting disagreed with the solution:

This is not how we present it here. You should have presented it like this.
Why is it like this? It does not make a scene. The team member didn't read the supporting documentation like others, and the presenter had to do it during the meeting.
Said, "I do not care about the deadlines. We should do it like this".

The outcome of the meeting was not a pretty one:

It was a waste of time for everyone on the call since, most of the time, 1 team member derailed the meeting.
Moving forward with a solution did not happen.
Team members became uncomfortable attending meetings with that team member. They felt they would be attacked and felt unsafe raising thoughts and ideas.

However, when attending positive meetings:

Everyone feels safe and can speak freely.
Working on a common goal.
Open discussions can happen.
Everyone is equal; roles and tiles don't matter.

For example, our CTO raised a production issue and needed people to join a war room. A handful of team members jumped on the call. He outlined our issue and then said, "What does everything think the issue is, and how can I support you?". What happened next:

One team member managed the meeting.
SMEs discuss the possible issues and remove unknowns.
Determine a temporary solution to allow us time to implement a proper solution.
We gave tasks even to our CTO.

The meeting's outcome was that the solution was resolved, and trust was built between team members (side-by-side and upper management).

Future meetings with the same team members were more manageable because we knew they would be in a space where everyone was at the same level and focused on one goal.

It is an effort to create a safe space culture, but it takes one bad meeting to break the trust. It is everyone's responsibility to protect it; if people see team member(s) breaking that culture, fix it instantly or you take the risk of losing it and have to rebuild it.

Requirements (Discovery Phase)

In a competitive world, every company wants to be the first to market, which is understandable. However, if the discovery phase is rushed, skipped, or even happening during the implementation, a pattern will occur:

Frustration: Different departments will be frustrated with each other. Usually, the Product team suffers the most because they get caught in a cycle where some details are shared with engineering, new questions are raised, and the cycle is repeated.

Lost of trust: Team members will start getting the impression that others are incapable of their role.

Implementation of incorrect solution: Since the requirements are changing, it can be challenging to implement a solution that will scale with future changes, as past decisions limit options.

Deadlines missed: Since the entire project is not understood, constant changes and new requirements/features are added, making it hard to define clear milestones.

Everyone wants to start on the new idea that the Business wants, but do not jump the gun. Invest in understanding the idea's short-, medium-, and long-term vision will:

Create clear milestones.
Help organize the discovery sessions.
Informed decisions on solutions.
Reduce the frustration between different business units.
Reduce the back and forth and rework between milestones.

A former VP made us think: Imagine this is the last $25,000 we have to spend. Do we have everything that is needed to be successful?

Disagreements/misunderstandings between team members

From time to time, disagreements and misunderstandings will occur between team members. If this happens, the team member who thinks a misunderstanding occurred should offer an olive branch and resolve the misunderstanding.

I will use an example that occurred to me. I was working on a new part of the system, proposed a solution, and recommended including certain team members to review it.

One of my team members left a message: "How many times do we need to repeat this? It breaks stuff for us. Stop trying to use this."

It was surprising and confusing to see that comment. So I had a meeting with that developer the next day, and before going into the topic, I asked for clarity on his feedback, but there was a total misunderstanding.

My co-worker took a moment to review the comment, and he realized how I misunderstood it and why I was uncomfortable in the current meeting.

The comment was directed to another person on the document who knew this was impossible but didn't inform me.

He was frustrated because a different department kept trying to sneak it in, and I got caught in the crossfire.

He apologized and took ownership of the misunderstanding. We both aligned that everyone was cleared up.

After this, we set up a 1:1 every three weeks to see how we can improve communication between the two different streams we work on.

We have a good partnership. We lean on each other if we have questions and know we can help each other.

However, sometimes, this is possible, and if there are disagreements, you may need to be a third party to help clear the water. That is okay, too, but you make sure that both sides are heard. A meeting does occur with everyone to make sure everyone is on the same page.

Also, it is possible that some people do not get along, but interactions need to be civil and professional.