Ever play the game of telephone? Choose a phrase, whisper it to the person next to you, and as it travels from person to person it changes subtly, but by the 15th person, a simple message like
The Beta launch will be in APAC after the Sales kickoff
turns into
I bet the lunch will be served ASAP after the soccer game.
whaaaaat?
Half the battle of leadership is to determine the goals and direction for the team.... the other half is to make sure they know it. While in a perfect world, everyone is always present and listening, in reality, unless you're getting sick of yourself saying the same message over (and over, and over, and over) again, other people probably haven't heard you.
I've found that getting the message across works best when I use multiple different communication mediums. And I use them as often as necessary to reach the right stakeholders. Some of the worst situations I've been in are those where I've forgotten to tell someone something important and then they found out about it in a game of telephone. In order to avoid that, I've created these lists of ways to communicate and an ultimate list of stakeholders to make sure I haven't missed anyone. I've used them for myself, maybe they'll come in handy for you.
Ways to Communicate
In person 1:1 (<--- the best, but never scales)
In person team meetings
In person team kickoff meetings
Vision documents
Fake "press release" or Sales Kickoff document
Product Requirement Document (PRD)
Slide decks
Slack Public Groups
Slack Private Groups
Slack DMs
Video calls
Email 1:1
Email project updates
Internal Wikis
Internal posters (especially effective on the inside of bathroom doors)
Quarterly Business Reviews (QBR)
Executive presentations
Company meetings
Show 'n tells
User research briefs
To Whom?
The Core Team
Designer
Tech lead / engineering manager
Individual developers (front end/ back end)
Your manager
Your skip-level manager
User Research
Project management
Data analyst
The launch team
Product Marketing
Public Relations
Legal
Internationalization
Helpdesk / Knowledgebase
Internal Communications
The "big deal" team
C-Suite
Finance
Business Analysts
Product Operations
Service, Sales, Support Enablement
Market research
Business development
The key to the game of telephone is to have the right message (clear and concise) and once you have that, use as many different communication methods that will eventually reach the right stakeholders.
You'll know when the message has sunk in once the telephone game starts and the message getting repeated is the message that you initially crafted.
The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. - George Bernard Shaw.
...
The biggest problem of communication is that it has taken place - George Shaw
...
This problem of communication has taken place - George
...
This communication has taken place.
...
:)
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