If your communication is bad, then you will need more communication to get to shared understanding.
Yes, better communication would also be a great solution. But "if you are bad at X, just do X better" is meaningless advice. Useful advice is either how to fix the problem (advice on how to do X better) or less popularly but often very useful, how to mitigate the problem (advice on how to avoid bad outcomes from being bad at X).
Turns out that more communication is essentially the only way to mitigate ineffective communication.
>Turns out that more communication is essentially the only way to mitigate ineffective communication.
No, it's not. This is the equivalent of saying "if your writing sucks, just use more words". Anyone reading an overly terse, jumbled mess can tell you that's not the silver bullet. Somehow, that is the solution we go for whenever management is involved, until they figure out "oh crap maybe boggling our ICs with bureaucracy is in fact a bad idea". Layering on more communication is not a net positive by default, not even in a world where time isn't a factor.
Heck, we both know most people have neither the mental capacity nor the note-taking diligence to keep up with this all. The system is already showing signs of oversaturation with how many go "what did we discuss again last meeting?"
>But "if you are bad at X, just do X better" is meaningless advice
Several others have already given examples. If you don't have information, stop making 30m-2h meetings when everyone already knows the answer is "we have to do more research", followed by actions such as "make a few quick prototypes and test with the client" or "have the front-facing people ask more questions". Use audio, visual, video media to communicate what becomes terse in words. Use less words and less meetings overall, where possible.
Start thinking about what truly adds value and what is a horrible proxy with near-zero evidence behind it. The default attitude is "never delete until evidence proves otherwise". Anyone looking at Brook's Law can understand how this goes wrong.
I shouldn't even have to explain this. I'm a consumer of the culture, not a producer. The fact ICs have to tell management types how to do their job better is ridiculous: that's management's job to begin with, optimizing communicational processes. I don't expect clients to tell me more than "the product is slow" either, even if I'll take any bit of information they can provide me.
I agree quantity isn't the solution if communication quality is poor.
Communication is more than just talking at people. It's about having healthy boundaries, positive conflict resolution styles, being able to reach a decision quickly and explain it clearly and concisely to others. It'd about anticipating blockers and clearing them, streamlining process to keep things moving, being accountable and presenting security in yourself and your actions even if you might doubt them. But most of all its about listening and letting the team do their jobs.
If your communication is bad, then you will need more communication to get to shared understanding.
Yes, better communication would also be a great solution. But "if you are bad at X, just do X better" is meaningless advice. Useful advice is either how to fix the problem (advice on how to do X better) or less popularly but often very useful, how to mitigate the problem (advice on how to avoid bad outcomes from being bad at X).
Turns out that more communication is essentially the only way to mitigate ineffective communication.