Communication is the job

Communication is important and unavoidable.

Satya Nadella (CEO, Microsoft) gave an interview years ago where he said the two things he looks for when hiring people are: “Do they bring clarity? And do they bring energy?”

Successfully communicating complex ideas is not a given. It takes work and practice to develop the skill of getting your point across so the receiver can understand you.

Andrew Bosworth (CTO, Meta) suggests tips for communicating effectively:

• Layer your message. Use bullet points with the most important messages at the root level.
  • Provide more details in nested bullet points. This ensures the right people get the right level of detail.
    • Get super granular with grandchild points. If someone needs the granular details, they’ll read this. If not, they’ll probably skip it.
• Speak to the second-order audience. You’re not just communicating with the audience in your meetings. Your message will get passed to the people they work with, too. Keep it simple. Keep it in a good format for passing on.
• Communicate defensively.