Thinking tool: Overcommunicate

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Adam Jones

When something matters: say it multiple times in multiple ways.

When something matters: say it many times, across different methods.

When something matters: repeat it, in different forms.

(See what I did there?)

People can be distracted,1 mishear, misunderstand, be tired, forget it, or have any number of excuses to not "get" something.

Given shared focus matters so much for trust and teamwork, you should overcommunicate important ideas, to ensure they get through correctly at least once.

Beyond just transmitting the message, repetition also:

  • normalises new ideas, making it feel less foreign and more persuasive
  • acts as a check-in with people to ensure they're on track and the key ideas are top of mind

The Simpsons chalkboard gag: Bart writes "I will say important things multiple times in multiple ways" over and over on the classroom chalkboard

This is one of the few techniques that actually seems backed by scientific evidence - from "Harvard Business Review: Effective Managers Say the Same Thing Twice (or More)":

"effective managers repeated themselves at least once, and we often observed managers who sent three or four redundant communications."

The "rule of 7" often comes up in marketing and other management books. This doesn't seem to have solid supporting evidence for the number 7, but it does seem like there's evidence that at least 3 or 4 exposures help in marketing contexts. Plus just the popularity of the idea suggests there might be some truth to it.2

Some great ways to say something multiple times:

  • Say it verbally in a meeting
  • Say it again in another meeting
  • Send it as a Slack message
  • Discuss it in 1:1s
  • Write it in a status update doc

Similar sentiments

This is part of my thinking tools series. Also consider:

  • Refuse the idiot plot: overcommunication starts with being willing to say the thing at all
  • Be disagreeable: communicate clear, precise beliefs - so others can object, and correct your understanding if it's wrong
  • Accept redundancy: repeated communication is redundancy that's both very cheap and very valuable

Footnotes

  1. One of the worst causes here I think is Slack + meetings that are too big.

    I'm not quite sure what the answer is. Eliminating these kinds of meetings completely is hard given sometimes it is genuinely useful to pull all the relevant people into a room, even if only parts of the conversation will be relevant to them, but then it's hard for people to know when to switch on and off. Maybe if people were better at written communication this wouldn't be such a problem; but in reality a lot of people just really aren't great at reading or writing. ↩

  2. An idea being popular does not mean it's definitely correct! E.g. learning styles.

    But it does act as some evidence of practical wisdom (or if you want to be fancy, metis) that might be pointing at something real.

    Related: Slate Star Codex's Book Review: Seeing Like A State. ↩