WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.279 You know that specific feeling of dread? Oh, 00:00:02.459 --> 00:00:04.860 yeah. It usually hits around, say, 9 -3 -0 on 00:00:04.860 --> 00:00:07.040 a Tuesday morning. You're clearing out your inbox. 00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:08.339 You're actually feeling a little productive. 00:00:08.580 --> 00:00:12.619 And then a message lands from the C -suite or 00:00:12.619 --> 00:00:15.240 IT. And the subject line is always something 00:00:15.240 --> 00:00:18.280 way too optimistic, like the future of collaboration. 00:00:18.559 --> 00:00:22.609 Or welcome to Slack. or Teams or whatever the 00:00:22.609 --> 00:00:25.949 new Trendy app is. And you just know right there, 00:00:26.089 --> 00:00:28.750 before you even open it, that your workflow is 00:00:28.750 --> 00:00:31.449 about to get a lot more complicated. It's the 00:00:31.449 --> 00:00:33.869 big announcement. We are finally abandoning the 00:00:33.869 --> 00:00:36.429 old, broken way, which is usually just email 00:00:36.429 --> 00:00:39.729 and moving to this shiny new platform that's 00:00:39.729 --> 00:00:41.329 going to fix everything. It's going to stop all 00:00:41.329 --> 00:00:42.969 the miscommunication. It's going to make us a 00:00:42.969 --> 00:00:45.189 family. And ideas will just flow like water. 00:00:46.170 --> 00:00:48.270 The myth of the magic tool, we've all been there. 00:00:48.490 --> 00:00:50.630 But that's the real tension we need to get into 00:00:50.630 --> 00:00:54.509 today. Because, I mean, we have Google Workspaces, 00:00:55.070 --> 00:00:57.649 Microsoft 365, Zoom. The tools are incredible. 00:00:57.929 --> 00:01:00.850 I can video chat with a colleague in Tokyo while 00:01:00.850 --> 00:01:03.770 we're co -editing a spreadsheet. In real time, 00:01:04.069 --> 00:01:06.310 we are so much more technologically advanced 00:01:06.310 --> 00:01:08.549 than any generation of workers before us. So 00:01:08.549 --> 00:01:11.349 why is communication breakdown still the number 00:01:11.349 --> 00:01:13.790 one problem at almost every single company? That 00:01:13.790 --> 00:01:15.930 is the multi -million dollar question. Yeah. 00:01:16.189 --> 00:01:18.870 Because If the tools are the best they've ever 00:01:18.870 --> 00:01:21.769 been, then the problem can't be that it's not 00:01:21.769 --> 00:01:24.329 the hardware. So for this deep dive, we're going 00:01:24.329 --> 00:01:27.469 to get into a really sharp piece of writing that 00:01:27.469 --> 00:01:30.230 tackles this exact thing. OK. It's an article 00:01:30.230 --> 00:01:33.010 by Gary Ackerman from HackScience .Education 00:01:33.010 --> 00:01:35.790 called Technology and Communication Problems. 00:01:36.040 --> 00:01:38.280 And Ackerman's whole point is that we're basically 00:01:38.280 --> 00:01:40.400 diagnosing the patient with the wrong disease. 00:01:40.700 --> 00:01:43.079 We keep treating communication like it's a software 00:01:43.079 --> 00:01:45.260 issue. When really it's a human behavior issue. 00:01:45.340 --> 00:01:47.200 And he's pretty ruthless about it. He basically 00:01:47.200 --> 00:01:50.280 says these huge tech migrations are just expensive 00:01:50.280 --> 00:01:55.040 ways for leaders to avoid dealing with the actual 00:01:55.040 --> 00:01:57.260 culture on their teams. I want to start with 00:01:57.260 --> 00:01:59.480 a concept Ackerman brings up right at the beginning. 00:01:59.560 --> 00:02:02.319 He calls it the organizational paradox. He frames 00:02:02.319 --> 00:02:06.230 it using schools, but... Honestly, it feels like 00:02:06.230 --> 00:02:09.150 it applies to any company. He says organizations 00:02:09.150 --> 00:02:12.469 are created to do something like educate kids, 00:02:12.870 --> 00:02:16.090 build widgets. But eventually, they pivot. They 00:02:16.090 --> 00:02:18.430 pivot to survival. It's a really subtle shift. 00:02:18.669 --> 00:02:21.270 At the start, every decision is about how do 00:02:21.270 --> 00:02:24.110 we achieve the mission. But as the organization 00:02:24.110 --> 00:02:26.629 gets bigger, the question changes. It becomes, 00:02:26.710 --> 00:02:29.550 how do we sustain the organization itself? So 00:02:29.550 --> 00:02:31.729 we stop trying to be effective. And we just try 00:02:31.729 --> 00:02:33.990 to be efficient at keeping the lights on, maintaining 00:02:33.990 --> 00:02:36.469 the status quo. And buying a new piece of software 00:02:36.469 --> 00:02:38.969 fits perfectly into that maintenance mindset, 00:02:39.150 --> 00:02:41.930 doesn't it? Perfectly. Buying a tool feels like 00:02:41.930 --> 00:02:44.169 you're doing something important to sustain the 00:02:44.169 --> 00:02:46.409 organization. It's tangible. You can point to 00:02:46.409 --> 00:02:48.569 it. Exactly. You can say, look, I improved our 00:02:48.569 --> 00:02:51.430 infrastructure. It is much, much harder to say, 00:02:51.789 --> 00:02:54.810 I had 20 really difficult conversations with 00:02:54.810 --> 00:02:57.210 managers about why their emails are so unclear. 00:02:57.449 --> 00:02:59.909 One is a purchase order. And the other is a complete 00:02:59.909 --> 00:03:03.210 cultural overhaul. Which leads us right to what 00:03:03.210 --> 00:03:05.710 Ackerman calls the leader's trap. The leader 00:03:05.710 --> 00:03:07.310 sees all this friction. You know, people aren't 00:03:07.310 --> 00:03:09.509 on the same page. Projects are stalling out. 00:03:09.509 --> 00:03:11.770 And their first instinct is we need a better 00:03:11.770 --> 00:03:14.169 platform. And Ackerman says that when a leader 00:03:14.169 --> 00:03:17.770 says that that a new tool will fix communication, 00:03:17.770 --> 00:03:22.550 you can make three Very reliable predictions. 00:03:22.889 --> 00:03:25.830 And they're pretty damning, honestly. Okay, let's 00:03:25.830 --> 00:03:28.330 break these down. The first prediction is about 00:03:28.330 --> 00:03:31.770 the leader themselves. Ackerman says, if a leader 00:03:31.770 --> 00:03:34.729 thinks a new tool is the answer. That leader 00:03:34.729 --> 00:03:37.289 is probably a poor communicator. That sounds 00:03:37.289 --> 00:03:39.430 a little harsh. It does, but think about the 00:03:39.430 --> 00:03:42.360 logic. If you are a skilled communicator, you 00:03:42.360 --> 00:03:44.979 know that clarity comes from your word choice, 00:03:45.240 --> 00:03:48.080 your tone, your timing. Empathy. Empathy, exactly. 00:03:48.280 --> 00:03:50.419 You know those are internal skills. If you truly 00:03:50.419 --> 00:03:52.680 believe that clarity comes from the software, 00:03:53.379 --> 00:03:55.400 from the interface... Then you don't really understand 00:03:55.400 --> 00:03:57.379 what communication even is. You're blaming the 00:03:57.379 --> 00:03:59.460 medium. It's like a bad guitarist blaming his 00:03:59.460 --> 00:04:02.060 amp. Or a writer blaming their word processor 00:04:02.060 --> 00:04:05.569 for a bad story. Right. Switching from Word to 00:04:05.569 --> 00:04:07.849 Google Docs won't make you a better writer. If 00:04:07.849 --> 00:04:10.129 a leader thinks, people aren't getting my vision 00:04:10.129 --> 00:04:12.229 because we're on Outlook, they're just showing 00:04:12.229 --> 00:04:14.430 a massive blind spot in their own abilities. 00:04:14.830 --> 00:04:17.209 That makes a lot of sense. Yeah. OK, prediction 00:04:17.209 --> 00:04:18.750 number two. This is the one I kind of want to 00:04:18.750 --> 00:04:22.389 push back on. Ackerman says, money will be spent 00:04:22.389 --> 00:04:26.310 to replace existing capacity with identical capacity. 00:04:26.589 --> 00:04:30.000 Ah, the one that makes the CFOs cry. But is it 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:32.519 really identical capacity? I mean, Slack feels 00:04:32.519 --> 00:04:35.019 different from email. Zoom is definitely different 00:04:35.019 --> 00:04:37.100 from a conference call. Aren't you buying something 00:04:37.100 --> 00:04:39.680 new? I think we have to separate features from 00:04:39.680 --> 00:04:42.620 capacity. Yes, Slack has emojis and threads. 00:04:42.839 --> 00:04:45.360 Zoom has screen sharing. But the fundamental 00:04:45.360 --> 00:04:48.319 capacity of the system is just, I have information 00:04:48.319 --> 00:04:50.759 and I need to get it to you. OK. Ackerman's point 00:04:50.759 --> 00:04:53.300 is that your current system, Google, Microsoft, 00:04:53.500 --> 00:04:55.980 whatever, it already lets you send text and share 00:04:55.980 --> 00:04:58.839 files and transmit video. So functionally, the 00:04:58.839 --> 00:05:01.060 pipe is already there. The pipe is wide open. 00:05:01.139 --> 00:05:03.660 So when you spend what he calls a shock high 00:05:03.660 --> 00:05:06.079 amount of money to switch platforms, you aren't 00:05:06.079 --> 00:05:08.720 really enabling a new type of human connection. 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:11.240 You're just swapping the interface. You're paying 00:05:11.240 --> 00:05:13.540 millions of dollars to change the color of the 00:05:13.540 --> 00:05:15.920 pipe, not what flows through it. And that takes 00:05:15.920 --> 00:05:18.319 us to the third prediction, which is about the 00:05:18.319 --> 00:05:21.579 cost that isn't on the invoice. He calls it the 00:05:21.579 --> 00:05:25.439 drain. The productivity killer. We always underestimate 00:05:25.439 --> 00:05:27.819 the cognitive load of learning a new tool. It's 00:05:27.819 --> 00:05:30.699 not just, oh, the button moved. No, it's wait. 00:05:30.920 --> 00:05:33.399 Where are my archives? How do I search this thing? 00:05:33.480 --> 00:05:35.860 If I edit this, who gets a notification? And 00:05:35.860 --> 00:05:37.639 while everyone is fumbling around trying to figure 00:05:37.639 --> 00:05:40.620 out how to just turn off the notifications. Real 00:05:40.620 --> 00:05:43.259 work isn't getting done. It creates this massive 00:05:43.259 --> 00:05:46.519 layer of distraction. For like three to six months, 00:05:46.740 --> 00:05:49.079 your team isn't focused on the mission. They're 00:05:49.079 --> 00:05:51.680 focused on the tool. You have actually degraded 00:05:51.680 --> 00:05:54.339 communication, all in the name of trying to improve 00:05:54.339 --> 00:05:57.019 it. So if you're a leader, you're basically lighting 00:05:57.019 --> 00:06:00.399 money on fire. to swap identical systems, and 00:06:00.399 --> 00:06:02.779 you're confusing your entire staff in the process. 00:06:03.339 --> 00:06:07.139 Yeah. So if the software isn't the problem, what 00:06:07.139 --> 00:06:09.459 is? This is where Ackerman pivots to what he 00:06:09.459 --> 00:06:13.040 calls the real obstacles. And he lists six of 00:06:13.040 --> 00:06:15.740 them. And the really uncomfortable truth is that 00:06:15.740 --> 00:06:18.279 these are all human failings. You can't code 00:06:18.279 --> 00:06:21.339 a solution for any of them. So let's start with 00:06:21.339 --> 00:06:23.459 the first group, what he calls the skill gap. 00:06:23.800 --> 00:06:26.740 He talks about inarticulate speakers and writers. 00:06:26.980 --> 00:06:29.449 This is... Just the baseline failure, right? 00:06:29.589 --> 00:06:31.949 Most of us are not naturally clear communicators. 00:06:32.209 --> 00:06:34.449 We ramble. We assume the reader has context. 00:06:34.509 --> 00:06:37.050 They don't. We bury the lead. All the time. But 00:06:37.050 --> 00:06:39.569 hold on. We have spell check. We have AI writing 00:06:39.569 --> 00:06:42.350 assistants now. Doesn't technology help with 00:06:42.350 --> 00:06:45.230 articulation? It helps with the mechanics? It 00:06:45.230 --> 00:06:47.230 can tell you that you spelled a word wrong. It 00:06:47.230 --> 00:06:49.649 might suggest a better synonym, but it cannot 00:06:49.649 --> 00:06:52.949 check your logic. It can't tell you, hey, this 00:06:52.949 --> 00:06:55.350 paragraph completely contradicts the last one, 00:06:55.689 --> 00:06:58.410 or this tone is going to make the marketing team 00:06:58.410 --> 00:07:01.050 really defensive. That's the difference. Clarity 00:07:01.050 --> 00:07:03.430 is a thinking process, not a typing process. 00:07:03.689 --> 00:07:06.430 Precisely. If I send a confusing message on a 00:07:06.430 --> 00:07:09.129 brand new, state -of -the -art platform, I've 00:07:09.129 --> 00:07:11.670 just managed to distribute confusion faster and 00:07:11.670 --> 00:07:14.089 more efficiently. The tool doesn't clean the 00:07:14.089 --> 00:07:16.370 mud off the message. Okay, so then there's the 00:07:16.370 --> 00:07:19.389 other side of that coin. Communication is a two 00:07:19.389 --> 00:07:22.870 -way street. So we have the inattentive listener 00:07:22.870 --> 00:07:26.430 or reader. The I'm too busy excuse. We all wear 00:07:26.430 --> 00:07:29.110 busy like a badge of honor. But Ackerman points 00:07:29.110 --> 00:07:32.930 out this great irony. We're usually distracted 00:07:32.930 --> 00:07:36.089 from one communication tool. By another communication 00:07:36.089 --> 00:07:39.129 tool. Oh, that is 100 % me. I'll be reading a 00:07:39.129 --> 00:07:41.509 really important email, trying to focus, and 00:07:41.509 --> 00:07:44.149 then ping a chat notification slides in. You 00:07:44.149 --> 00:07:46.250 have to look. I look at the chat, I answer it, 00:07:46.250 --> 00:07:48.189 and by the time I go back to the email, I've 00:07:48.189 --> 00:07:50.389 completely lost the thread. That's just the modern 00:07:50.389 --> 00:07:52.610 condition. And he mentions the real world stuff, 00:07:52.769 --> 00:07:54.610 too. People dropping by your desk, fire drills, 00:07:54.730 --> 00:07:57.930 whatever. The whole environment is hostile to 00:07:57.930 --> 00:08:01.290 deep attention. A new app doesn't fix your attention 00:08:01.290 --> 00:08:04.949 span. In fact, if it's more instant, like a chat 00:08:04.949 --> 00:08:07.189 app, it might even make it worse. It might fragment 00:08:07.189 --> 00:08:09.310 your attention even more. Which leads directly 00:08:09.310 --> 00:08:11.750 into the next obstacle. Too much information. 00:08:12.069 --> 00:08:15.730 The deluge. The fire hose. But isn't the whole 00:08:15.730 --> 00:08:18.230 point of these tools to help us organize all 00:08:18.230 --> 00:08:20.230 that information? That's what they say in the 00:08:20.230 --> 00:08:22.689 sales pitch. But in practice, they often just 00:08:22.689 --> 00:08:25.639 add to the noise. Ackerman's point is that the 00:08:25.639 --> 00:08:28.519 problem isn't the existence of information, it's 00:08:28.519 --> 00:08:30.879 the filtering. It's separating the signal from 00:08:30.879 --> 00:08:34.620 the noise. If you have 50 unread messages and 00:08:34.620 --> 00:08:37.220 48 of them are just thumbs up emojis or thanks 00:08:37.220 --> 00:08:40.759 and two of them are The server is on fire. You're 00:08:40.759 --> 00:08:42.759 going to miss the server alert. And adding a 00:08:42.759 --> 00:08:44.519 new tool usually just adds a new channel you 00:08:44.519 --> 00:08:47.159 have to check. Now you've got email and Slack 00:08:47.159 --> 00:08:50.299 and Trello and Asana. You haven't organized the 00:08:50.299 --> 00:08:52.480 information. You've just scattered it over a 00:08:52.480 --> 00:08:55.379 wider area. Exactly. I want to move to the obstacle 00:08:55.379 --> 00:08:59.019 that I think causes the most like actual human 00:08:59.019 --> 00:09:02.539 conflict in an office. Ackerman calls it disregard 00:09:02.539 --> 00:09:04.980 for the audience. This one is all about empathy 00:09:04.980 --> 00:09:07.539 or a total lack of it. Right. And he breaks it 00:09:07.539 --> 00:09:10.139 down into two errors. The false negative and 00:09:10.139 --> 00:09:12.320 the false positive. OK. The false negative is 00:09:12.320 --> 00:09:14.779 leaving people out of the loop who really should 00:09:14.779 --> 00:09:17.820 have been included. And he uses this really specific 00:09:17.820 --> 00:09:20.659 painful example about a resignation. This one 00:09:20.659 --> 00:09:23.399 makes me cringe just thinking about it. A leader 00:09:23.399 --> 00:09:26.539 decides to quit. They tell a small select group 00:09:26.539 --> 00:09:29.740 of insiders they make a judgment call. The rest 00:09:29.740 --> 00:09:32.440 of the team doesn't need to know yet. A bad judgment 00:09:32.440 --> 00:09:36.100 call. A terrible one. Because what happens next? 00:09:36.879 --> 00:09:39.620 Inevitably, HR posts the job opening online. 00:09:40.019 --> 00:09:42.659 So you have people, his direct reports, just 00:09:42.659 --> 00:09:44.860 sitting at their desks, maybe browsing the company 00:09:44.860 --> 00:09:47.360 job board, and they see their own boss's job 00:09:47.360 --> 00:09:49.179 listed. And that is how they find out their boss 00:09:49.179 --> 00:09:51.279 is leaving. The sense of betrayal there must 00:09:51.279 --> 00:09:54.379 be huge. It sends the message, you are not important 00:09:54.379 --> 00:09:57.419 enough for me to tell. And again, what tool caused 00:09:57.419 --> 00:10:01.110 that? Did email cause it? Did Slack? No. A human 00:10:01.110 --> 00:10:03.769 being made a conscious decision to withhold information. 00:10:04.549 --> 00:10:06.850 No software feature in the world can force a 00:10:06.850 --> 00:10:09.029 leader to be transparent. Then you have the opposite 00:10:09.029 --> 00:10:12.259 problem. The false positive. The reply -all monster. 00:10:12.299 --> 00:10:14.019 The monster is right. This is the cover -your 00:10:14.019 --> 00:10:16.460 -ass email chain. UCC attend people who have 00:10:16.460 --> 00:10:18.080 nothing to do with the project just so you can 00:10:18.080 --> 00:10:20.279 say later, why I told everybody, you are putting 00:10:20.279 --> 00:10:22.539 your own safety above the attention spans of 00:10:22.539 --> 00:10:25.399 10 of your colleagues. It's selfish communication. 00:10:25.480 --> 00:10:28.080 Yeah. You're polluting their day with irrelevant 00:10:28.080 --> 00:10:30.759 noise because you're either lazy or paranoid. 00:10:30.960 --> 00:10:33.759 It is, and it's absolutely rampant. So we've 00:10:33.759 --> 00:10:36.720 covered how we write, listen, and filter. But 00:10:36.720 --> 00:10:39.039 Ackerman also gets into the friction caused by 00:10:39.039 --> 00:10:41.740 the tools themselves, specifically our habits. 00:10:42.460 --> 00:10:45.279 This is ignorance of tools and norms. Yeah, the 00:10:45.279 --> 00:10:48.559 tribal knowledge problem. Every single team develops 00:10:48.559 --> 00:10:51.720 its own set of unwritten rule. Like, we use email 00:10:51.720 --> 00:10:54.700 for formal requests, but we use chat for planning 00:10:54.700 --> 00:10:57.519 lunch. Or don't ever message the boss after 5 00:10:57.519 --> 00:11:00.179 p .m. But... Nobody ever writes these rules down. 00:11:00.320 --> 00:11:03.620 Never. So a new person joins the team, or maybe 00:11:03.620 --> 00:11:06.259 two departments merge, and you have instant friction. 00:11:07.039 --> 00:11:09.460 The new guy sends an urgent request over email, 00:11:09.580 --> 00:11:12.220 but your team basically ignores email and lives 00:11:12.220 --> 00:11:15.000 in slack. So the new guy gets labeled as unresponsive 00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:17.899 or maybe annoying? Just because he's using the 00:11:17.899 --> 00:11:20.240 tool differently than the tribe does. And here's 00:11:20.240 --> 00:11:22.840 the kicker. If you bring in a brand new platform 00:11:22.840 --> 00:11:25.480 for everyone, you wipe out all the norms, everyone 00:11:25.480 --> 00:11:28.259 becomes the new guy. You reset the entire culture 00:11:28.259 --> 00:11:31.779 to zero, which might sound good in theory, but 00:11:31.779 --> 00:11:34.460 it usually just means six months of pure chaos 00:11:34.460 --> 00:11:37.179 while people figure out new, probably equally 00:11:37.179 --> 00:11:39.779 dysfunctional norms. And just when you get settled, 00:11:40.700 --> 00:11:43.799 we hit the final obstacle, changing tools. The 00:11:43.799 --> 00:11:46.059 fatigue is real. Even if your company doesn't 00:11:46.059 --> 00:11:49.070 switch vendors, the vendors switch on you. Interfaces 00:11:49.070 --> 00:11:51.590 get updated, your favorite feature gets dropped. 00:11:51.970 --> 00:11:54.470 And Ackerman mentions the adoption gap. When 00:11:54.470 --> 00:11:56.769 a new feature rolls out, half the team starts 00:11:56.769 --> 00:11:58.710 using it and the other half just ignores it. 00:11:58.809 --> 00:12:00.570 So you end up in this hybrid mess. Oh, I put 00:12:00.570 --> 00:12:02.549 that file in the new spaces tab. What's a spaces 00:12:02.549 --> 00:12:05.049 tab? I haven't updated my app. It fractures the 00:12:05.049 --> 00:12:07.809 team's shared reality. You're literally not looking 00:12:07.809 --> 00:12:10.090 at the same thing anymore. Right. So if we look 00:12:10.090 --> 00:12:12.779 at this whole list. Inarticulate writing, distraction, 00:12:13.500 --> 00:12:16.419 noise, no empathy, tribal norms, constant updates. 00:12:16.759 --> 00:12:19.220 It becomes so incredibly clear. Buying a license 00:12:19.220 --> 00:12:21.899 for Microsoft Teams solves exactly zero of those 00:12:21.899 --> 00:12:24.480 problems. Zero. In fact, it often makes them 00:12:24.480 --> 00:12:27.100 worse by just adding novelty and confusion into 00:12:27.100 --> 00:12:29.679 the mix. So why do smart leaders keep making 00:12:29.679 --> 00:12:32.379 this mistake? Ackerman says it comes down to 00:12:32.379 --> 00:12:36.519 something he calls The previous Joe bias. Ah, 00:12:36.620 --> 00:12:39.860 the comfort of the familiar. A leader gets hired, 00:12:40.019 --> 00:12:42.279 they look around at the new company, and it all 00:12:42.279 --> 00:12:45.279 feels messy and out of their control. So they 00:12:45.279 --> 00:12:47.379 think back to their last job. You know, at my 00:12:47.379 --> 00:12:49.879 last company, we used a sauna, and things felt 00:12:49.879 --> 00:12:52.639 really organized. Therefore, a sauna must be 00:12:52.639 --> 00:12:55.240 the thing that creates organization. It's a classic 00:12:55.240 --> 00:12:58.340 logical fallacy. Correlation does not equal causation. 00:12:58.419 --> 00:13:00.700 And it's worse than that. He argues it's, well, 00:13:00.799 --> 00:13:03.870 it's laziness. He says leaders who do this are 00:13:03.870 --> 00:13:06.830 effectively incapable of making the decision. 00:13:07.210 --> 00:13:09.710 Incapable is a really strong word. It is, but 00:13:09.710 --> 00:13:12.289 he justifies it. He says they're incapable because 00:13:12.289 --> 00:13:14.250 they can't tell the difference between a technology 00:13:14.250 --> 00:13:16.830 problem and a people problem. Right. If a doctor 00:13:16.830 --> 00:13:18.690 can't tell the difference between a broken leg 00:13:18.690 --> 00:13:21.740 and the flier. that doctor probably shouldn't 00:13:21.740 --> 00:13:23.740 be prescribing medicine. And they just don't 00:13:23.740 --> 00:13:25.899 understand the consequences. They don't. They 00:13:25.899 --> 00:13:27.700 treat the switch like it's just changing a light 00:13:27.700 --> 00:13:30.100 bulb. They don't see the thousands of wasted 00:13:30.100 --> 00:13:32.320 hours, the frustration, that drain we talked 00:13:32.320 --> 00:13:35.419 about. They're just imposing their personal preference 00:13:35.419 --> 00:13:38.100 on the whole organization without ever counting 00:13:38.100 --> 00:13:41.320 the real cost. So if we strip this all down, 00:13:42.399 --> 00:13:45.759 if the magic tool is a complete myth, what's 00:13:45.759 --> 00:13:48.259 the actual solution? What should a leader do 00:13:48.259 --> 00:13:50.440 instead of calling a sales rep? The synthesis 00:13:50.440 --> 00:13:53.159 of his whole argument is that communication is 00:13:53.159 --> 00:13:56.320 a behavior. It's not a technology. It's a discipline. 00:13:56.500 --> 00:13:58.980 And the solution is boring. It's boring hard 00:13:58.980 --> 00:14:01.559 work. It's training people how to write a subject 00:14:01.559 --> 00:14:03.720 line that actually means something. It's setting 00:14:03.720 --> 00:14:06.399 clear norms like, we do not expect email replies 00:14:06.399 --> 00:14:08.940 after 6 p .m. It's holding someone accountable 00:14:08.940 --> 00:14:11.860 when they hit reply all for no reason. It's managing 00:14:11.860 --> 00:14:14.409 the humans. It's managing the humans. Changing 00:14:14.409 --> 00:14:17.110 the platform is often just a very expensive form 00:14:17.110 --> 00:14:19.549 of procrastination. It lets you feel like you're 00:14:19.549 --> 00:14:21.889 fixing the problem without ever having to deal 00:14:21.889 --> 00:14:24.730 with the messy, uncomfortable reality of human 00:14:24.730 --> 00:14:27.409 interaction. That is a huge perspective shift. 00:14:27.769 --> 00:14:29.750 And it kind of puts the responsibility back on 00:14:29.750 --> 00:14:31.950 all of us, doesn't it? It really does. You can't 00:14:31.950 --> 00:14:34.409 just hide behind the interface's clunky anymore. 00:14:34.570 --> 00:14:36.649 So I want to leave our listeners with a challenge. 00:14:37.009 --> 00:14:39.590 We've talked a lot about what leaders do wrong, 00:14:39.889 --> 00:14:41.909 but let's just bring it down to our own desktops. 00:14:42.360 --> 00:14:45.360 If you are feeling frustrated with your team's 00:14:45.360 --> 00:14:48.220 communication, don't go looking for a download 00:14:48.220 --> 00:14:52.620 button. Do a little audit first. Exactly. Go 00:14:52.620 --> 00:14:55.299 look at the last five emails or messages you 00:14:55.299 --> 00:14:58.299 sent and be really honest with yourself. Were 00:14:58.299 --> 00:15:01.690 they clear? Did you even need to send them? Did 00:15:01.690 --> 00:15:03.950 you include only the right people, or did you 00:15:03.950 --> 00:15:06.649 just blast it out to everyone to be safe? And 00:15:06.649 --> 00:15:09.590 then look at how you read things. Did you actually 00:15:09.590 --> 00:15:11.750 read that last email you got, or did you just 00:15:11.750 --> 00:15:13.990 scan the first sentence and guess the rest? Maybe 00:15:13.990 --> 00:15:15.950 the glitch isn't in the system after all. Maybe 00:15:15.950 --> 00:15:18.169 it's in the user. A tough pill to swallow. But 00:15:18.169 --> 00:15:20.370 it's probably the only one that actually cures 00:15:20.370 --> 00:15:22.629 the illness. Thanks for diving in with us. Good 00:15:22.629 --> 00:15:24.230 luck with your inbox, and we'll see you next 00:15:24.230 --> 00:15:24.389 time.