Communication for the IT Geek

I by no means claim to be a communication expert. However, in the course of my job, my communication skills are often called upon.

1) I am a developer. I am required to communicate with the user to determine their needs/wants/desires. After designing an application, I am required to communicate with the users to determine if those needs/wants/desires were met as well as communicate with users when they run into problems.

2) Being part of a small IT team (there are only three of us), I am required to communicate with users when my cohorts (particularly the guy who handles most of the helpdesk requests) are not around.

So, imagine if you will, a System Administrator (completely hypothetical, see disclaimer): he plans his infrastructure, he administrates said infrastructure, and what he says goes. He feels no need to communicate with the users. They will use the system he provides, end of story. You don’t like it? Tough. See this guy, I’ll wait, it’s worth it. (While hysterically funny, this should be an example of what NOT to do. Due to his own poor communication skills, he actually creates more work for himself!)

While that is an enjoyable attitude to have, let’s face it, if there were no users, we would have no jobs. So, some communication must be doled out to users.

Communication is good. Really, it is. I promise. If YOU can send out the appropriate information, in the appropriate format to the appropriate people, you will have to interact with end users far less than you currently do and those interactions will be far more tolerable, even possibly enjoyable.

So, on to the tips:

Try to think like the user (I know it’s hard, just try). They have NO idea what you do, they just want their stuff to work. They have 25 bosses yelling at them to get their TPS reports done. Are you designing an app that requires them to click through three screens to get to something they use several times and hour? Do you take down the server at noon to install an update?

Don’t be condescending. It doesn’t help anyone. The user will feel angry and frustrated. In all likelihood, the user will walk away. YEAH! You think. However, the next time they have a problem, they won’t report it and it will fester until it goes from a relatively small helpdesk problem into a large crap-this-will-take-me-hours-to-fix problem. Or they will report you to their boss and their bosses boss and who knows who else will come tromping into your office to tell you to be nicer to people. So condescending does not help in the long run (even though it feels good sometimes!).

Be PROactive more than REactive. If you are going to take down the server in the middle of the day, communicate that fact to your users at least 30 minutes beforehand. Too little time and they won’t be able to save their work and exit. Too much time and they’ll forget when it’s happening, or that it is happening at all.

Err on the side of too much communication. Seriously, I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone complain when I’ve given them “too much” information. If it is too much, they ignore it. Fine. At least that lets them decide. Too little information and once again, you have frustrated users. Worse, they can often fill in the gaps with their own made up info. Example, the T1 line goes down, so external email is not being delivered. Without any information from you, the user assumes Lotus Notes is down and IT sucks. If you communicate the information (the T1 is down and external email will not be delivered until the T1 provider fixes the problem) AHEAD of anyone complaining, you will have far less user frustration and misconceptions.

However, too much communication shouldn’t mean “tech speak”. Throwing out a bunch of technical terms just to get users off your back doesn’t count as communication, see the paragraph about being condescending. Have you ever had to sit in on a marketing meeting? Lots of industry jargon. It can be frustrating to sit there not understanding a word people are saying, can’t it? Don’t do that to people.

Don’t be afraid to speak to users in real life. Too often we rely on emails and IMs. In the daily barrage of information we all receive, these can often (always) be ignored.
Frequently, tone and intent can quickly be misread in email or IM. When things start to get out of hand or have too many back and forths, stop, get up and speak to the user in person.

Bottom Line. Communicating with people is a good thing. Communicating well is even better. Even just trying to be better at communication shows an effort. Believe me, you will be rewarded. When I communicate effectively with users and management, I have less work to do and WAY less frustration. You can too!