Miscommunication

Preparation

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Summary

Present

When using social media tools, the tendency is for communication to take place through email, instant messaging, and other electronic means and away from face-to-face.

This can be really freeing, but this can also cause a lot of problems.

We’re going to do a couple of activities to help us identify issues and work through them.

Activity: Things to keep in mind

Present

We all use email already and we’re probably on mailing lists and other electronic communication mediums. Let’s take a minute and remember problems we had over the last year because of people communicating through email when they should have communicated face-to-face.

Give everyone a solid minute to think about it.

Present

Let’s go around and discuss them. Tell your story and how it could have been alleviated. If you can, leave out names–let’s call everyone Ted and Alice. If your story shouldn’t be told or you don’t have a story, feel free to pass.

Go around and let people tell stories. If no one has a story they want to tell–that’s fine. The purpose of this is less to talk and more to start thinking about miscommunication.

Activity: Interpreting tweets

Present

Some electronic communication has restrictions that make it difficult to communicate effectively.

Go to http://identi.ca/ . On the front page, they show dents going by.

Take a few minutes to watch the dents go by. Pick a dent that is easy to understand and one where you read it and don’t understand what they’re trying to say.

Give everyone a few minutes to read dents. Then have everyone copy and paste their favorite undecipherable one down in a PiratePad.

Talk about them or laugh at them.

Activity: Dealing with communication issues

Present

Miscommunication happens all the time. Let’s talk about ways we can identify a problem as it’s happening or before it’s happening and ways we can alleviate it.

Discuss for a few minutes. When it peters out, say the following things:

• the frequency of communications rises quickly

  Most spats can be identified when the frequency of posts suddenly spiked. It’s usually the case that most of the posts come from a small group of people.

  Best way is to stop the argument, get the group together face-to-face to hash it out.

  When things get worked out, make sure someone summarizes the resolution in the same space that the spat occurred. If the spat was on a mailing list, the resolution should be on the mailing list. If the spat was on Twitter, the resolution should be on Twitter.

• the conversation breaks down into disrespectful language

  Intervene and get the people to meet face-to-face to work it out. It’s ok to continue to disagree, but it’s not ok to disagree in a way that lacks respect.

  Make sure the resolution–even if it’s agree to disagree–makes it to the same medium the spat happened in.

• make sure you meet face-to-face regularly

  Electronic collaboration is no substitute for face-to-face meetings. Make sure that you’re meeting once a month. This brings everyone back to reality with each other and helps trust issues and strengthens bonds. This does a lot to alleviate problems with miscommunication.

• create a covenant for communicating online

  Make sure you address the following things in that covenant:

  1. think about what you say, write it down, and read it before you send it.
  2. if something someone sends angers you, don’t reply. it’s better to give it a day or call them up.
  3. work out disagreements face-to-face or at least on the phone. then publish the resolution where the disagreement happened.
  3. email is no place for sarcasm or snark–it’s too hard to determine the intention.

Closing

Present

Meet face-to-face regularly and make sure you address spats quickly and firmly.