When efficiency is not effective

To actually be efficient, communicate with context

I took myself on a brunch date on Sunday and a minor confusion in my order to the waitstaff reminded me of a crucial communication strategy that I’d failed to deploy. Luckily brunch is not a life-or-death situation (though partners who have witnessed ‘hangry’ me may disagree 😈). But in a business environment, it can result in hours or days of lost work due to confusion.

This is especially true when so much communication happens asynchronously with limited ability to discuss or ask for clarification. Emails; announcements rather than meetings; ad hoc requests rather than well-thought-out memos, even conversations on tools like Slack. (Have you ever watched a 52 message thread unfold, and get more & more heated until eventually someone says “shall we jump on a call to discuss?” 🙄).

The vast majority of these frustrating situations are a failure to communicate with sufficient context, leaving your conversation partner (or colleagues or employees) to try and catch up with exactly where your train of thought is heading.

Deliberately misunderstanding context makes a good joke though 😂 https://xkcd.com/138/

To demonstrate what I mean, here’s how my brunch order went:

Waitstaff: Here’s a menu. Would you like a coffee to start?

Me (being ‘efficient’): Oh I know what I want. Can I have the chorizo baked eggs with an extra piece of toast please?

Waitstaff: Sure <goes away>

Me, thinking: *perfect, now I can read my emails until food comes*

Waitstaff reappears, looking confused: Um, so the eggs — chorizo baked eggs — it comes with toast already, actually 2 slices of toast?

Me (internally sighing): Ah yes, I know. But I’d like an *extra* piece of toast please.

Waitstaff, relieved: Ok no problem!

What happened? I tried to communicate efficiently and ironically ended up being less efficient!

Whilst technically I did say I wanted an “extra” piece of toast, that small word in a rather long sentence wasn’t enough to override the other possible interpretations — for example, that I didn’t realise it came with toast, or simply that the waitstaff had misunderstood me. After leaving, the waitstaff realised this and came back to clarify with me what I meant. You can see how uncertain they sound when they return. That’s a terrible communication outcome! We’ve had to have two conversations instead of one, and I’ve also added extra cognitive load to the busy waitstaff.

Here’s how it could have gone instead:

Waitstaff: Here’s a menu. Would you like a coffee to start?

Me (giving context): Oh I know what I want. Can I have the chorizo baked eggs please? I know that it comes with two pieces of toast — can I also get an extra piece of toast?

Waitstaff (pausing): …Oh ok. You would like three pieces of toast?

Me: Yes please

Waitstaff: No problem! <goes away>

Now we’ve had one conversation instead of two — much better! By giving more context, I’ve helped the waitstaff to follow my train of thought.

Whilst much improved, in this example I’ve given a bit too much information in one go. The waitstaff are unsure that they have understood correctly. They ‘catch up’ more quickly than in the first example, but they still need to pause and then ask a clarifying question to make sure they have understood. I’ve improved the efficiency, but there’s still additional cognitive load for my conversation partner.

Here’s an even better example:

Waitstaff: Here’s a menu. Would you like a coffee to start?

Me (being ‘effective’): Oh I know what I want. Can I have the chorizo baked eggs please? Does that still come with 2 pieces of toast?

Waitstaff: Great. Yes, it comes with two pieces of toast.

Me: Ok, can I get an extra piece of toast as well?

Waitstaff: No problem! <goes away>

In this example I’m actually involving the waitstaff in my request. Because they have participated in my train of thought, they are crystal clear on what I’m requesting and how they can satisfy that. They don’t need to ask for clarification, and there’s no hesitation or second-guessing.

It takes a little more effort and time on my part to begin this way, but saves energy for us both in the long run. I use this strategy all the time at work, particularly when coaching more junior team members as it’s also a fantastic way to demonstrate your own thinking process out loud. Starting with a question also leaves room for me to be wrong!

To recap:

If you try to communicate too efficiently, you’re likely to skip important context and leave others struggling to catch up with your train of thought. Whilst you might be technically correct, in this case that is not the best kind of correct.

You can often achieve more effective communication by being a little less efficient. This is particularly true when you’re communicating something new or disrupting a normal process, as people have a certain expectation about what is going to happen next, and they need more time & information to ‘catch up’.

In a lot of cases you’ll find that giving more context, whilst taking longer initially, actually results in a more efficient discussion overall as there’s less need for back & forth clarification. #winwin

Here’s my top 3 tips for levelling up your communication:

1. Give context when you communicate. Don’t wait for people to ask for clarification — often they won’t, will stay confused, and you won’t get what you need.
2. The more that you’re interrupting an established process, the more context you need to give. Also give space for people to catch up! You’ve just 180'd their normal train of thought. If you’re drastically changing something, consider hanging a lantern on that 💡.
3. For master level communication, don’t *just* give context. Actually involve people in your train of thought. It’s much easier for people to ‘catch up’ if they are participating in the story, and it’s easy to do this with targeted questions at key points.

Maybe it sounds ridiculous to draw all of this out of a 60 second brunch order, but the best thing about the brunch example is that you can practice this strategy in low consequence scenarios. In all circumstances, this is a kinder communication strategy because it reduces the cognitive load on your conversation partners 🥰.

PS. In case you’re wondering, the chorizo baked eggs at Clover Cafe are absolutely delicious and you should definitely try them.

PPS. Did you pick up the other context-setting phrase that I used in all three conversation examples?