Communication, Canadian Furniture & Why You Should Start a Blog

I hope you had a great weekend, and a good start to the week.

This week I was thinking a lot about communication.

We assume "communication" skills are applicable everywhere.

"Good written and verbal communication skills" are a staple of job descriptions.

And many of us would consider our verbal and written communication skills to be "good."

But the reality is, communication skills are often context-dependent.

Good written and verbal communication skills aren't put to use if you can't recognize when they are required and the context in which you are communicating.

Remote work has made the recognition of these situations even more important.

I can communicate well when given the opportunity to give a presentation, or to write a document.

But the context of that presentation or document matters.

The people I'm attempting to communicate with matter.

The communication channel matters.

The frequency of my communication matters.

If someone previously worked in a job with little oversight, working independently with few dependencies with other team members–like I was, in small startups–then they won't be used to working transparently and communicating frequently with other members of their team or company.

When working remote, this is even more important, because the frequent, informal touch points you have in an office are no longer present. You must find alternate ways to communicate.

For me, this has meant finding new ways to communicate, and doing so more frequently.

Communicating via multiple channels–at our weekly all hands meeting, in our work management tool, in Slack, and by scheduling regular check-ins with different teams.

All skills are context-dependent.

Yes, many skills are transferrable. My written and verbal communication skills still come in handy when I'm given the opportunity (or find the opportunity) to communicate.

But recognizing the context and finding new places to communicate has become much more important.

In short:

• Recognize the context in which you are communicating
• Recognize when the context changes (you shift teams, you start a new job, you move to remote work)
• Seek feedback on your own communication (from managers, team members, peers)
• Adjust as necessary

If you're on the other end, and looking to evaluate communication skills:

• Ask about past behaviours–how they communicated
• Ask about context–where the communication took place
• Help new team members recognize that the context has changed, and their communication will need adjusting too.

Here are some things I've been checking out the last week:

Articles I'm Reading:

• How to Start a Blog That Changes Your Life - Nat Eliason - Nat has seen far more success from his blog than I have, but much of what I've done has been modeled on his example. I recommend to whoever is interested to start writing on their own. There are so many benefits, even if you don't monetize and build a business from it.
• “Ghislaine, Is That You?”: Inside Ghislaine Maxwell’s Life on the Lam - Vanity Fair - If you've read anything about Jeffrey Epstein, or watched the Netflix documentary, you'll know that Ghislaine Maxwell was one of the loose ends. She was recently caught, and her story is fascinating (and horrific).
• Meet Julian Bass, the Social Media VFX Star Who Has Won Over Hollywood: "The World’s Gonna Know Your Name!" - Hollywood Reporter - A cool look at the power of social media and the internet, as someone developing some cool visual effects videos gets noticed by people like Disney chairman Bob Iger.

Book Notes:Antifragile - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

One of the most impactful books I've ever read, and the first book I recommend for those discovering Taleb for the first time.

Product I'm Checking Out:Caramba Furniture

This Canadian-based company makes flat-pack furniture that ships free throughout North America. It's made from sustainably-sourced Europly plywood, and is meant to be dead simple to assemble.

Have a great week!

Graham