Never assume the other person knows what you are talking about

Most work-related intentions fall into one of five categories. For each category, it is possible to describe the intent of the message in one line. The table below shows the categories and some examples of how to show intent in a short sentence.

There are a few core and unfortunately quite common causes of overly complex descriptions at work. 

  • Cause #1: We assume the audience thinks like us. 
  • Cause #2: We believe the audience needs to know all the details to be able to understand the problem. 
  • Cause #3: We focus on variables and dependencies instead of the problem. 
  • Cause #4: We summarize more than one problem at once.

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