Team communication skills

Project Teams in the software industry rely on communication. In the project, there is no difference in how to emphasize communication. In fact, we can find the root cause of most problems in communication. For example, many of us have a feeling at work that there are always gray areas in our work, these fuzzy points lead to discord in our work. It can be clearly stated that this will continue to emerge in your work; and as your position increases and your responsibilities increase, this will become more and more. The reason is that, at least in my opinion, no organizational structure can be defined so clearly (because we are faced with the reality that the market is changing faster and faster), so, we need to strengthen our communication and rely on our communication skills to make up for some problems.

First, the cost of team communication is very high, and the cost of communication increases with the following factors: the increase in the number of people, the separation of work places, and the lack of a common context platform, different values or judgment criteria. As the number of people increases, there are more and more lines of communication between each other. As information increases, you may not necessarily be able to direct you to success. You will have to judge different types of information, this increases costs. In terms of management, we recommend single-headed leaders (rather than multi-headed leaders) for this reason. We are in favor of using a small number of high-quality personnel to replace a large number of inexperienced personnel, it is also based on this judgment. the separation of work locations will also lead to a sharp increase in communication costs. I don't know what you think about a team like this: our demand team is in Beijing, the design team is in Shanghai, the development team is in Wuhan, and the test team is in Dalian. If I see such a team, it will make me very scratching my head. Moreover, whenever possible, I am extremely reluctant to use such a team. Because of the separation of locations, the number and quality of communication is much lower than that of direct face-to-face communication. For general development teams, I hope they are not only in one office, but also their office spaces, so that they can raise their heads and communicate with each other.

They will become more interested in communication. Many project managers tell me that we have MSN for daily communication, we have teleconference for project meetings, and we have video meetings to solve face-to-face communication problems. However, in fact, this is far from enough. We now have many ways to communicate, but please answer one of my questions. What do you say to your mother every day when you were at home? After you leave your mother, although you also have a variety of convenient and convenient contact means (and I often chat with my mother on MSN), how many words do you talk about every day? Do you know more or less? The communication with the mother is still the same, so how do you communicate with a project team (or even a project team member you have never met? Communication and communication between people is no more effective than direct face-to-face communication. We can hear each other's voice and see each other's eyes ...... What's more, we can reach each other at your fingertips. This is a fresh means of communication, and no means can match him. Therefore, unless you have to, do not divide your team into so many places.

For example, we once tried a software factory (we set up a software factory in Wuhan, so that when I saw our meeting, there were always several colleagues in Wuhan, ideally, we want to perform requirements, design, and acceptance tests in Beijing, and develop and test in Wuhan. In addition, it mainly develops some highly independent products (such as a report display tool) or a very simple function implementation. At that time, in order to reflect the effectiveness of the software factory, the general manager ordered that the team in Beijing would not be forced to use the software factory in Wuhan. As a result, almost no one was using the software factory in Wuhan. Even if some people were using it, they directly sent requests and design personnel to Wuhan to bring the project like a project manager. At that time, we were very realistic: whether the software factory was successful was not my problem; but if my project failed, it was the biggest problem. Therefore, if you ask a group of brothers from the zhangkou closed-port software factory to do the work by themselves at least, you will find that the difficulty is very high, and you seem to be back before liberation within one day, project concerns and risks will rise sharply. It is not as easy as you think. Of course, if you really can easily manage your team in this area, I have to say that your project management and team management capabilities are excellent, and you are an international project management master, but ......, Is R & D necessary for more than 98% of small projects in China? I don't think it is necessary. Therefore, do not open closed software factories or software factories.

We know that the problems we are facing now are as high as the failure rate of software projects when we proposed software engineering 20 years ago, instead of having solved the failure rate of software projects, for most projects, how can we ensure the success rate and how can we do it. Lack of a common context platform also leads to an increase in communication costs. For example, we want a design document to be executed in a relatively fixed format. Of course, this approach is not worth too much (the content of the chapter is completely defined as very dead and very dead, And it will easily lead to negative effects). However, this approach is effective, he unifies the context platform, and everyone knows where to find a part of your content. For example, in general management, we all know that "let's pull this thing" in Lenovo, take a good look at this matter. For example, we can see a buddy talking wrong at the meeting (of course, it's a general internal meeting, but it's not a terrible thing, it's a terrible time to say something wrong ), we will smile in good faith and say, "Give him another chance ". Every new member of Lenovo will attend a one-week "Model Training", which means that no matter what kind of person you look like in society, to enter Lenovo, you must pass through this model, then, at least you will have relatively consistent values (this model training can basically be seen as an excellent traditional introduction + a subtle influence on Lenovo's Common Terms + simple expansion training. Maybe in the past N years, Lenovo will forget a lot of things, but it is hard to forget the idea of model training. At least I have been away from Lenovo for two years, oral and work style, or more or less ). "Give him a chance." This is a story from every input model training, assume that a certain coach takes the "XX student" (both of them can be changed to the person you want to talk about) to take the cultural examination.

INSTRUCTOR: "How much is 9 + 10 equal ?"
Student: "20 !"
COACH: "This kind of question will all be wrong. Teacher, give him another chance !"
......
"What is the value of 1 + 1 ?"
Student: "2 !"
COACH: "Teacher, do you want ...... And give him another chance ?"

Let's talk more about the rise. Generally, after each model training period, Lenovo's internal email system is under great pressure, because at this time, many "model friends" (people entering the same introductory training period, it is known as moyou. If you are lucky to be divided into a group, it is a more intimate moyou. Our group was named "VII" and was pronounced as V two, the name of a scum is still a bit blushing. It was honest at the time. Otherwise, it would not pass the name.

Another team is called the "big knife team". It's even more funny. When I saw the team leader go up, it was a small thin man. I also thought: What is this big knife about? Haha ). In a large company like Lenovo, there are endless departments. If we find that the contact person of your cooperation department is your friend, congratulations. Generally, it will not be too difficult for you, or even give you a lot of help. As a result, you will find that in many projects that require multi-department cooperation, relying on this close relationship makes it easier to move things forward. The relationship between friends will last for a long time, so that we will get together and give a birthday to a friend. When friends leave Lenovo, they will also send us an email, tell us to leave Lenovo. Even to your department, face to face

Goodbye. This is a good method. This is to build a common context platform (by the way, the program is an extremely good and unambiguous context platform, programs Written by Americans and Chinese people are programs that we can understand ). In the absence of this contextual platform, it would be a trivial matter not to understand what the other party said, but it would make you unable to integrate into the entire team like an outsider. Different values or judgment criteria may greatly increase the communication cost. Because he will make some basic judgments deviate, the managers tend to withdraw all the judgment and decision-making powers, and the team members lose a lot of opportunities to exercise ,. Finally, the team leader is busy, and the following team members are idle (more likely, the team members are busy, but not busy ). Managers tend to break down one thing and call it a variety of operational instructions. The overall goal is a vague thing in the minds of team members. This is a terrible thing. Well, everyone who wants to drive a car knows that we always want to have a road map when we go to a certain location. I think many people will hate it, in a very busy location, the buddy next to it doesn't tell you where the destination is, and starts to issue various commands: "going to the left ......", "!", "Alas, alas, follow that big car out." "What's the use of that car, that car, follow this car !". If this is a buddy who dares to say so for a long time, I will open the door and let him get off the bus! This will at least make me very angry, because I have to look around for what he said, and I don't actually know what he is going to do. It looks clumsy and uncomfortable! My favorite indicator is: "Turn left under the bridge, you need to go out of the highway here ". I understand more, and even if you give me more instructions, I can easily understand.

For example, communication between the sales team and the R & D team always has some problems. A good product is a product that can be sold by the sales team. The so-called good product of the R & D team is described based on the technology itself. Therefore, sales are generally reluctant to spend money on the so-called framework, but R & D is always obsessed with this. Similarly, there are many other places to increase the team communication cost, such as language barriers (for example, communication between a person with poor English skills and a foreigner ), the background is different from each other (the sales and R & D conflicts are the same). The private relationship is the one that stints fish cannot look at (of course, very professional people, the relationship between work and private will be well balanced, but this is an excellent professional quality that few people possess after all. Communication costs will be greatly improved. The above are some things that increase communication costs. For a field that is so important for communication, it is always advantageous for the project to minimize the difficulty of communication and the cost of communication. This may potentially reduce a lot of your software costs. Next, let's talk about the areas that need attention. If it is not complex, it is simple.

Communication is actually simply "listening" and "speaking ". Say what you want to say, listen to what others want to say. This is extremely important in communication. If it is boring to preach, it is also annoying. It seems that the teacher is reading without a tone in the sullen classroom of summer, and the following students are sleepy. If I continue to say this, I can almost hear the sound of a cicada (my favorite, falling asleep slowly in that environment, with a bright smile on my face, that is a pleasure ). Let's talk about it in another way. Let's take a look at the discussion on BBS, and let's look at "speaking" and "listening.

First, "listen". In general, this is more difficult. In principle, listening and speaking are as difficult as speaking, but now there are so many smart people that everyone can speak and argue, but it is hard to say whether they can hear what others say. In terms of communication, we often make such mistakes, including:
We often take it out of context and intentionally or unintentionally understand a paragraph as all meanings. Of course, this is a common trick on the forum. In a long article, I will always grasp some inappropriate words, and then start from this topic, so that the opponent can leave the field that he has already won and start from a very uncomfortable start point, this is boring (more useful, we generally use quotation marks to reference the other party for a short sentence. If the other party must talk more nonsense, refer to the section 1/3 he wrote earlier, it is estimated that a lot of impatient people will not see it, so his words will become evidence of the evidence), isn't it? When listening to others, we should also pay attention to whether we have taken into account the context, rather than extracting a paragraph from it to give play and understand it.

We often look at each other's opinions with a counterargument. Originally, on the BBS, once we started to fight, we had to beat the game. Although everyone was talking, we thought we had no mood to discuss the problem, adrenaline is the source to keep us running. One of the ways we often use is to look at each other with colored glasses, and then maliciously push him in the direction he supports. For example, one person supports the goal-driven assessment system in his work, so everyone said: the goal is everything, but the goal is not the process, and the risk is high, the manager's training responsibilities and so on. For example, another person agrees with the process evaluation method, so others start to say that his goal is not clear, and the manager is easy to be a good person and easily lead to face engineering ...... And so on. As a result, everyone thinks that the other party is a nonsense. However, in fact, this is because we are listening to what others say with a refuted attitude. Management is often an art of trade-offs. Therefore, if you push others to such extreme levels, your views are naturally correct.

BBS can be used in this way, but in reality, it is difficult to "listen" to the views of the other party. This phenomenon is very common. So when I hear these things, at least let myself think about it. Have I also made this problem? It's really nice to say that the other party is wrong, isn't it? We will feel wise like watching a clown or a child, but this status is not good. In this way, communication is basically impossible. He is too sensitive. Especially for many people who feel very good about himself, he will regard any suggestions and opinions as a challenge to him. Do you still remember the hero in "three musketers" written by Dazhong Ma? It is a novel. If you are so sensitive in reality, it will make others feel that you are difficult to get along with each other. Some designers believe that any opinion on the design is an attack on themselves, and they will always be right. In that case, you are not a team player. It's hard to work with you at work.

We do not respect people. One of the most common rude actions on BBS is that, without looking at others' posts, we start to criticize them frantically. It's good: You don't have to eat a stinking egg that you can know when you taste it. But (things are often bad on the "but") if you just want to have a good time, you can scold people and get angry. However, if you want to discuss the problem, you 'd better check out what others have written. This is a kind of respect for others. Do not give a comment based on your own understanding. What is the value of that? Typical invalid communication. We are not trying to prove our victory by putting people into approval. We are trying to solve the problem through communication. So it is better to respect it.

Basically, it is not completely complete, but at least these are the first things in my mind, and they are also the most profound feelings for me. Let's talk about it.

First of all, let's clarify your ideas. Don't talk about the East. When it comes to the west, I don't know what you want to say. This is a question of clarity. It is also an important component of IQ. At least reflect the quality of some high-IQ personnel (Do you mean that IT personnel have a high IQ ?). For example, one of the methods we like to use during the interview is to ask 7-8 questions at a time, and then ask the interviewer to answer them in sequence (these 7-8 questions are logically related, and the logic is relatively clear. For low-level posts, we usually ask 4-5 questions in a row), and during his answer process, we will attempt to ask some questions and ask him to continue to answer them. Check whether he can answer these questions and have a clear idea. If a single employee is unable to withstand the pressure of 4-5 consecutive problems, I will not consider it any more. Therefore, maintain a clear idea and know what you want to answer. Do not hit anything like a fly with no head.

Second, please sort out your logic. The examples you give should prove your arguments. It is confusing not to mention them. This is often seen in BBS. After a buddy finished n paragraphs, he suddenly told me that the above example may be difficult and he has come over again. I have no idea what to say. You are not sent by my friends to play with me, are you? The simplest way to sort out the logic is to put forward your point of view and list your arguments with 1, 2, 3, and 4, so that it is easier for everyone to communicate, isn't it? I don't want to give an example for a while, and I cannot tell the logical relationship between the examples. In this regard, I can only admit that my understanding is capable of keeping up with your thinking.

Once again, if it is not a last resort (for example, a decision-making process that needs to be made as soon as possible, it cannot be discussed in more cases), we should try to make it less aggressive. If the attack is very strong, it basically cannot strengthen your point of view. This method is similar to doubting others' motives, greeting others' families, and so on. Generally, it is unnecessary. The other party will become more difficult to persuade. Because he will consciously protect himself, this is not a matter of itself, but a matter of adult. In general, this is more difficult to solve the problem. Of course, if the team has already established such a culture, such as the Niang culture, sometimes it is useless. But I don't like this culture. For example, when a director argued with me about the next stage of work (of course, this was also a communication, huh, huh), he pushed me to the chest with his hand. It was just summer, it was easy to get angry. My mind suddenly rushed and almost slapped me. But I can't help it. However, there was no result in that debate.

Finally, please be reliable. One of the people I really dislike is that they are not reliable in speaking and dare to say anything, but they are mostly nonsense. Therefore, please pay attention to what you are talking about. Make sure that what you are talking about is at least what you think is right. Otherwise, you can easily mislead others. And once it is captured by someone else, just give a few numbers and you will be done. Therefore, my favorite sentence is: "I don't speak, you don't speak, numbers speak ". Well, of course, there is a lot of detail in how you talk about numbers. One of my aunts is working in the Bureau of Statistics. She and I were at the university and talked about a lot of tips on how to make numbers prove my point of view, so that I am still looking at the numbers, see if anyone is fooling me about numbers. Haha. Those who have learned statistics must be familiar with this. Okay. The above are some common communications. As for the communication between upper and lower levels, I will not describe it here, and more will be explained in the team management. Communication costs are very high. Therefore, we should try our best to communicate effectively, with less fearless communication. Both speaking and listening are important, so take it seriously. The next point is written by many technical brothers who are somewhat lacking in "speaking. I know that some technical staff have a lot of things in their hearts, but when I say it, I suddenly cannot say it, and I feel very bad. If you are called a "Watering Pot" or "Fountain" in the company, you don't need to watch it. You must have no skills in this field. I don't have enough experience to joke about it. The most common exercise is to allow you to talk a little bit at least in front of everyone. It is difficult to say this, but it is also easier to exercise. For example, when I was at a department-level meeting (Haha, I wanted to open it in the Development Department this year, but I had no time to do it, so I had to leave. Many real-time brothers said, I hope to do this. I am sorry for this! In the future, we will have the opportunity to gather together and miss you very much.) We can gather 20-30 people. Of course, it is also possible to concentrate more people in other ways, but not too few people. Of course, it is useful even if it is less, but the effect is not that good. Then prepare a large box containing all kinds of small notes. Write a noun (such as bamboo, such as the Great Wall) on the note and draw it out at will. Then, prepare for it in 5-10 seconds, then I started to say that in five minutes, no pause of more than three seconds is allowed (or, like reading poetry, a "Ah ......" Throughout the 7-8 seconds, people may feel bad, and they may feel like you are being attacked ). If the pause lasts for more than 3 seconds, the system will step down and fail. After five minutes, we will judge whether the speech content is consistent, whether the ideas are clear, and the tone and speed control during the speech. This is also part of Lenovo's model training. When I faced more than 100 model friends, I suddenly began to say that I felt a little dry, but after a while, it was much better. It is really not difficult to be confident. The problem is that you do not have many opportunities to exercise. when you exercise, the more you do in public speaking, the less confident you are; the less confident, the more seeds of failure are laid for the next time. Therefore, we are confident that everyone is so confident. Just practice it several times.

The following are some tips. I often use the following skills:
First, understand what kind of person you are talking. Then, let's think about how to say that the target audience is people who do not know the technology. The way they speak is completely different from those who are proficient in the technology. This is very simple and I will not talk about it much. The key point is what the other party can understand. Your communication is not used to show off what you mean, but to let the other party understand what you mean. If the other party cannot understand it, it's not the other party's problem. It's because you are not speaking well.

Second, you should not only consider yourself, but also whether the other Party understands what you mean. That is to say, you need to start from the other's ideas, rather than from your ideas. For example, if you have developed an electric kettle. How do you explain it to your customers? Many people will come up and say, "He will call ye, and when the water is burned, he will call Ye." "He is hotter than others, saving energy ". However, I still don't know what your product is. Therefore, the most secure and conventional (and of course the least creative, what should we do if we want to be creative? Maybe I will understand it in five years, but I don't know it now.) The practice is:
First, we will introduce what the product is: Electric hot water kettle, which is something that burns water with electricity;
Second, introduce the value that products can bring to customers; boil water for you;
Third, what are the characteristics of our products: Electric Heating,
Fourth, why choose us? Electricity, environmental protection, clean ......
This description is easier to understand than the customer.

Again, Before the introduction, you should first clearly state what your point of view is (of course, this is a conventional saying, if you want to export your point of view by the other party, then you can praise him a few more times and regard this as his own point of view, so you don't have to raise it ).
Again, let's talk about your argument system. This is something I used to call as a "pipeline of Thinking". I will tell each other which system I will draw conclusions based on. For example, I will say that I can draw a conclusion based on SWOT and competitive model analysis, or tell the other party what your starting point is. For example, I think you have this question, in fact, such a problem needs to be solved. This has two main roles: first, draw a path to let the other party's ideas go in your rules in the following time; secondly, if there is a misunderstanding, you can also know it as soon as possible, so that you do not need to talk about a single Chase and find it wrong. It is very ugly. It looks stupid to you.

Again, it is very important to make it clear that I have five reasons or three factors that I think should be done. In this way, it is easy for others to feel that your ideas are agile and fast, or you have considered this question a lot and are a very professional person. However, in actual operations, you often hear a problem that takes about three seconds to consider. You need to use the time to understand the reasons you want to explain, if you think of 3-4 points, you can directly say that I have six factors to consider (because you may think of something you did not think of in the process ). So if you say it step by step, if you find that there are only five, and one is missing, it's disgusting, but it doesn't matter. You just want to think about it, or, let's just say the previous idea in another way. If you are pursuing insurance, we will say, "This has something to do with the previous one, but there are some differences. "You only need to find a difference. On the contrary, if you think it is broken, if you say it is less than, it should be. What should you do. Congratulations! Your thinking is too agile. Remember to talk about it later. But this time, I said, "The last thing I want to add is that although I put it at the end, it does not mean that he is not important." Then I made a confession. It's always impossible to let your own ideas get worse. This is not to tell you a lie, but to express your thoughts in a more organized way.

Of course, the more the elements, the better, the more others can't remember. You need to level them, in general, 5-7 is the limit.
Next, we should express your arguments at 1.1 points. If you can use numbers, we should use numbers to illustrate the problem. Too many modifiers will arouse others' dislike. For example, "a lot", "a lot", etc. If you say too much, it is easy for the boss to say, "How much ?" It is quite uncomfortable.

Finally, we need to make a moderate summary. At the end, let's review your summary, which will help the other party sort out their ideas. If the other party is clear, he will think that your ideas are clear. Smart people always like to communicate with smart people, don't they? If necessary, connect to the other party's problem and end it later. because the other party's problem is also the most important thing for the other party.

The last thing I want to talk about is to understand that talking to smart people is not to mention being too detailed. It is too detailed and comprehensive, so it is easy to make the other person sleepy, and it feels so cool (some people really like to talk to them, it's really tiring ). Of course, if you are talking to a typical hacker, you might as well say more (but, to be honest, I seldom met such a person. But there are still! When I reported to him for the first time, after that, he was confused and confused.

In terms of "listening", I usually use the following skills:

First, please gather your eyes (of course, do not be too fierce, this will make others feel that you are questioning him), at least you have to pretend to be smart and competent; it also makes the other party think that you are listening to him seriously. In addition, according to my own experience, in this situation, you are indeed listening very seriously. This is important.

In addition, the waist is like a beach of mud lying in a chair, it looks unhealthy and lazy.
Second, please look at the other party. If the other party is a female, the general goal is a relatively large scope (do not stare at other people's eyes, it will put a lot of psychological pressure on people ), if you are a male, but his eyes keep your eyes away, maybe he is a relatively weak person. Don't always stare at the other person. Take a look at other places. We look at each other and want to let them know that we are listening to him very seriously, not putting too much pressure on others. In addition, if someone has a defect (such as blinking eyes), be sure not to stare at it (although you may be curious), which will make others more unnatural.
Again, take notes in a moderate manner. However, don't worry too much. If you really want to record the entire conversation, it is definitely not enough for one person. It takes more than two people to take notes. If a person communicates with the other Party, he can only record some key points and make the other Party feel that you attach great importance to him. You can make a picture or record it, but it is always not wrong to bring a notebook in the conversation.

Again, I nodded more and gave some feedback to the other party. But don't worry too much. If you say "well" once, you will feel uncomfortable, just as bad as the CD disc. in a moderate way, you may be confused, you may not understand what the other party says. Please express it in a proper manner so that you can communicate with each other, this is often because the other party is more interested or proud to express it appropriately, or make the other party satisfied. If your opinion is different from that of the other party, please first listen to what he said and do not interrupt him. This is a very bad problem and it is very rude (sometimes, I am not doing well and will change it in the future ). Let the other party finish. Of course, you have encountered some things, and your time is also very tight. You may just say it bluntly, it will save a lot of time, so that he can give a brief explanation of what he wants to say. If not, let's talk about it later. If you find something you don't understand, if it's important, let's talk about it directly. Otherwise it would be quite uncomfortable. I once went to a partner company with a buddy to talk about technology. The employee of that company is simply a fake foreign devil. I am afraid there are not many English words, but all who know can use English. There are a large number of PCs to phone; phone to PC; I am very surprised why my colleague did not speak. When I finally came out, the colleague asked me "Zhou Haifeng, what is to phone? ". It is estimated that the buddy of the partner company had a strange pronunciation, which caused my colleague to be depressed for a long time. However, such communication is invalid. In addition, it is easy for the other party to feel strange about your ideas. It's not worth it. Let's say it.