Imagine you’re working with a new project manager (PM).
She brings with her a wealth of experience from her last company. This is great because teams benefit from fresh ideas, perspectives, and tools.
As time passes, she identifies issues regarding deadlines. Her previous workplace faced something similar, so she suggested a strategy that worked there: more standup meetings.
You’ve heard of scope creep when teams keep adding new requirements to a product without end. If allowed, this causes endless work and delays. You can think of “communication creep” as the same, only for communication.
The problem with communication creep
Communication is important. The main problem with using more of it as a solution is that some forms have more negatives than positives.
When this becomes pervasive communication creep, it causes issues like:
- Wasted time
- Information overload
- Decreased productivity
- Stress from too many interactions
- Potential burnout
Resisting communication creep doesn’t mean stopping communication, though. What it means is making sure the method isn’t unnecessarily interrupting work and is respecting different types of people, especially introverts.
The issue is it’s your job as a manager to make sure everyone is in touch about tasks and other important matters. Unchecked, this can lead to communication for the sake of communication. But there are ways to solve this that work for everyone.
This is especially important for engineering managers since engineers are usually introverts, but any manager can make use of the below strategies.
Minimizing communication creep
Managers need regular communication to stay aligned, and your team needs uninterrupted time for deep work and task completion.
So, the below strategies are not about throwing old methods out the window. Instead, they’re about optimizing them and adding new ones as supplements. Then, you’ll be able to pick the best option for whatever your needs are.
1. Minimize unnecessary meetings
Meetings are ground zero for communication creep.
Once, two team members invited me to a meeting. On Slack, I asked them for a list of questions they wanted to discuss. I answered each question, and we ended up not needing the meeting at all. This simple step saved us an hour and a half of our day.
Some team members won’t see the issue with a 90-minute meeting to accomplish what a few thoughtful messages could. After all, some are better at talking and don’t feel as drained afterward. But this won’t work for everyone, and as in many cases, the meeting may not be necessary.
You can also look at who’s invited to a meeting and ask yourself if they (and, most importantly, you) really need to be there. Unfortunately, some meeting organizers think more people means a better meeting. In reality, more people means more time spent getting on the same page before discussing the matter at hand.
Most people just need a simple report about what was discussed.
2. Lean into your secret weapon
Async communication is your secret weapon as an introverted EM.
Examples include Slack, Google Docs, Notion, Grain and more.
Consider these benefits (if you haven’t already):
- Flexibility: recipients can process the information when they’re able to
- Clarity: communicators have time to craft their messages to make sure they’re structured, clear, and understandable
- Speed: everyone has to get right to the point
- Permanence: it leaves a record of who said what and at what time, preventing repeating information over and over again
- Retention: recipients will better remember the information or be able to refer back to it if needed
However, even with these benefits, you’ll need to build a culture where team members understand people have different rhythms when checking and responding to notifications.
For example, many engineers feel annoyed when managers demand an immediate response to a question. It feels like nagging to them and can create resentment, even resistance. This is especially true if the engineer is in a deep work state.
So, communicate to your fellow managers that it’s okay to give more time when waiting for responses.
As another potential solution, engineers could set their status to “deep work” so managers know they will get a response in a couple of hours instead of a couple of minutes.
3. Don’t “rubber duck” your colleagues
There’s a popular technique where engineers keep a rubber duck on their desks. When they have an issue or a problem, they talk it out with their duck.
This seems silly but it speaks to a deep truth: saying things out loud helps us think better. That’s because talking out loud slows our brains down. It helps us become aware of our thoughts and break them down.
The problem is that many of us use each other as rubber ducks. We go over to someone’s desk to think out loud with them. It works great for the speaker, as it saves them time and often brings them more clarity, but it can be detrimental to the listener.
It makes me think of when I was a teen and was scared to go to the doctor. To solve this, I would grab a friend to go with me. My friend had nothing to do, and it was fun because it was something to do together.
But the thing here is that we were teens and had a lot of free time. We’re adults now and everyone is super busy and overwhelmed. When we use someone else as our duck, we’re effectively stealing their time and attention.
In short, discourage your team members from using others as rubber ducks. Encourage them to use actual ones instead. They could also journal, as doing so slows your thoughts down similar to saying them out loud.
4. Be each other’s executive assistants
We were working with a new PM and I was excited about it. She wanted us to go through the backlog of old tasks and needed my help to better understand them. I am happy to help with things like this.
She wrote to me suggesting we have a one-hour meeting about it. In response, I asked her to prepare by giving me a list of all the things she needed feedback on and what she didn’t.
After she did, I responded with some points. This helped us focus our meeting on the things she really needed more info about.
You can think of this as “doing your homework” when approaching others for something or when they approach you. If we hadn’t spent time doing this, we likely would have wasted time talking things through that the initial exchange easily solved.
To combat this issue, have your team members act like executive assistants. Executives are very busy people and need very precise communication so they know exactly what’s expected of them, when, and how they need to respond. Your team should treat each other with the same respect for each others’ time.
The short version: build a culture respecting time and attention
Communication creep can infiltrate all aspects of your team’s work. This wastes time and, especially for introverts, drains their social battery. As a manager, you can help build a team culture that avoids this.
Here are things you can do:
- Minimize unnecessary meetings: determine if you can replace the meeting with some async communication and, if it’s needed, who even needs to be there
- Lean into your secret weapon: use async communication when possible for benefits such as increased clarity, speed, retention, and flexibility
- Don’t “rubber duck” your colleagues: talk to an actual rubber duck instead of your colleagues, or journal instead — both slow down your thoughts and help you process them
- Be each other’s executive assistants: communicate so people know exactly what’s expected of them, when, and how they need to respond — this could prevent a meeting or make one more efficient
Resisting communication creep doesn’t just free up your team’s time and mental resources. It creates an atmosphere of respect, with everyone valuing each other’s limited time and attention. By paying attention to your team’s communication practices, you can encourage everyone to keep the creep to a minimum.
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Originally published on Medium.com