Tag: Communication

Is the devil really in the detail?

I work in a world that can appear very complicated. There are options all around, different ways of thinking about things at every turning, a new methodology just over the horizon and innovations just around the next corner.

Choices upon choices upon choices. Options within options within options.

I’ve been in a number of situations recently where, in response to this complexity, someone has said – “the devil is in the detail”. It’s a common saying which seems to get applied whenever complexity looks like a problem but is it really just cheap shorthand? Is it just an office cliché?

One recently situation was a review meeting where a number of people where looking at a design for a project we’ve been working on. Like all designs it defines a solution to a level. To document it all would be impossible and produce mountains of documentation, so the design focuses on the major elements and defines them to a level to enable understanding. During the review someone said something like “I’m OK with this document, but like all of these things – the devil is in the detail”. Whether it was deliberate or not the individual concerned was communicating “it doesn’t matter how good a job you do you’ll miss something that really important that will make our life difficult later on”.

In another situation someone was explaining to me the various options that existed for a solution to a customers business problem. I needed to be able to understand, at a high level, what the options were. The only way this particular individual could communicate was via the detail – lots of detail. When I tried to summarise what they were telling me their response was “yes, but the devil is in the detail”. or, in other words, “don’t simplify it, it’s too complex”.

These two situations got me thinking – is the devil really in the detail?

When I look back at all of the projects that I’ve conducted and all of the solutions I’ve delivered, how many times has the devil really been in the detail?

And, if we had spent more time on the detail would we have found the devil and removed it?

Or, actually, has the devil really been somewhere else?

Here’s my short conclusion: Sometimes, yes the devil has been in the detail, but normally, no the devil wasn’t down in the detail. And what’s more, where the devil was in the detail it is highly unlikely that would have found that devil by being “more detailed”. The devil wasn’t hiding in the detail we were looking at, he was busy in another bit of detail out of sight..

What I have noticed though, is that more often it’s not in the details that the devil lies – it’s in the overview, the macro, the summary. Or more specifically, it’s in the assumptions that accompany the high level view.

In simpler terms:

When I say x I mean x,

but you assume that when I say x I really mean x + y.

This is where a dichotomy raises it’s head. If the devil is in the summary and the overview, surely the answer is more detail – but actually putting more detail in just adds fuel to the fire of confusion. The detail doesn’t lead to understanding, it leads to blank stairs and nodding unknowing heads.

What can be the answer?

Unfortunately I have no hidden supply of magic bullets, or long lost alchemy, just some observations:

  • Simplification is an art that few are skilled in, but it is at the root of the answer.
  • Considering all of the options just adds to the perception of complexity.
  • Presenting all of the options turns complexity into confusion.
  • 1000 options are only 1000 options if you are likely to make a choice. If you aren’t likely to change them then they aren’t options. There are over 1000 routes from here to my house, but only very few of them are realistic choices.
  • Pictures are a great way of driving simplicity out of complexity.
  • Words need to be used precisely and consistently. Finding the right word can make all the difference, but words soon loose their precise meaning.
  • Defend the meaning of words. Once the meaning of a word has been lost there’s no point trying to get it back.
  • Projects act like snowballs travelling down a hill. if you start it off in the wrong directions there’s no point in trying change the direction correctly once it’s rolling.
  • Communication is another key.

Top 10 – Communication Tips

Communication remains a challenge to many, including myself.

I’ve found that the following tips really help though:

  1. Listening is more important than speaking
  2. If you can, start with a question.
  3. Too many words are more destructive than too few words.
  4. Simplicity is far more difficult to achieve than complexity.
  5. When preparing a message, constantly ask yourself “so what?” and remove everything that is not answering that question.
  6. A conversation is much more valuable than a presentation.
  7. Pictures speak a thousand words, but they may not be the words that you are thinking.
  8. Metaphor and analogy form gateways to understanding.
  9. Tell people a story, they’ll remember the story much longer than they remember the point of the story. The story will then lead them back to the meaning.
  10. Just because it’s interesting to you – doesn’t mean that it’s interesting to anyone else.
  11. Lists are often the worst way of communicating.

What do I know?

There’s a saying that I use quite a lot, which apparently comes from Voltaire the French philosopher:

“Common sense is not so common”

Jimmy and Granddad Explore the Lake DistrictWhat I regard as obvious is likely to be different  to what you regard as obvious. What I know is likely not what you know. My experiences, my understanding, my perspective is always going to be different in some way to yours, sometimes it’s going to be radically different to yours.

This isn’t new information, and if you’ve been around a while I suspect that you read it as “common sense”, but that’s not the way that we behave.

Whenever I enter into a conversation I make an assumption that the person I am talking to knows certain things and sees some of those things in a similar way to me. The way that I communicate with that person is massively influenced by the assumptions that I have made about the person that I am talking with.

So why am I surprised when they understand the conversation differently to me?

Surely my expectation should be the reverse. It’s far more likely that someone will understand a situation in a different way to me because they see that situation from a different perspective. It’s highly unlikely that they will see it in the same way because it’s not likely that their perspective will be the same as mine.

In some ways it’s a miracle that we ever communicate at all.

How would changing our perspective change our communicating?

The Communication Mystery

Frozen Derwentwater at KettlewellI have to admit that communication is a complete mystery to me. I like to think things through logically,  but I’ve never been able to fathom communication.

I’m constantly amazed by the things that people regard as exciting because they understand it, even if it’s not really very exciting at all. I’m even more amazed by the things people regard as exciting even though they don’t understand it.

I’m sure that the answer is in communication, but that is still a mystery to me.

Dilbert.com

A little while I started out on a mission to have more meaningful conversations. My aim was to have one every day, well that has proved impractical, but I have still managed a significant number.

What I am starting to conclude is that communication is more of an art than a science. What I mean by this is that communication involves far more emotion and heart than logic. Engage with people’s feelings and they are open to communication, engage with their logic and most people aren’t. Be passionate about something and they will engage, give them the facts and they probably won’t.

Why don’t people engage with emails? Because it’s just communicating facts.

Why do people engage with video conferencing? Because it engages their feelings.

The challenge and the mystery is born out of the subjectivity of any art which means that people engage with it in completely different ways.

How you engage with the picture at the start of this blog depends on so many different things. I was there so I know what it felt like, but how the picture makes you feel depends upon your history, your upbringing, your experiences, your preferences. Each one of these will influence your emotional reaction to it.

I’d like there to be a formula for communication, but there isn’t one, I’ll just have to learn to be a better artist.