The One With Communication Failures

We had an interesting day today. Due to a cascade of communication misshaps, people had wildly different interpretations and expectations for a strategy decision and a meeting about it and then it got a bit uncomfortable because everybody felt offended. Fortunately, everything was cleared up by the end of the day, but the whole event was a bit draining on everybody involved.

Some of the mishaps were caused by the failure of normal communication chains due to some people being on sick leave, but I still think there is some room for improvement overall. In my mind, open and transparent communication of all decisions is the first step for being able to work together across teams and departments efficiently. I understand why some people are wary of this and I also see that being distributed makes this more difficult than when everyone is in the office. But I still see this as the most important and the very first step. I don’t know how to communicate this properly though. Some more calmness on my end would definitely help so I guess that’s where I should start.