Folks make up a lot of “rules” about communication. Things like “I can’t ask this” or “they should know what I mean”. In actuality, there’s great power in stating what’s going on.

Miscommunication is a HUGE time waster. We don’t take the time to clarify upfront, because we’re in a hurry and too busy. But the time it takes to go back and unravel the situation is at least twice the amount of time it would have taken to get things straight up front.

You may believe you know what the team decided, but do you all have the same definition of what the next step is? Try saying something specific like: “So Jim will create an outline of our presentation by Wednesday and then we will all get our comments back to him within 24 hours. Is that correct?”

Or, if you think you’ve been misunderstood, there’s no need to make the clarifying conversation more complicated than it needs to be. After the fact, go back to the person and simply say something like “I just want to check in with you quickly on something. My sense is that you thought ____________. In actuality, I meant to communicate _______________. Just wanted to make sure you didn’t get the wrong impression.”