Skill
Learning to listen properly is a fundamental skill when you want to get things done.
Why you need this skill
If you don’t have this skill, if you hear the “wrong” things when planning your work, you will create the wrong things. This is a waste of everybody’s time. It is very frustrating and causes conflict.
Sometimes a company has a culture where people approach gathering understanding in an adversarial way; instead of gathering facts they start pulling together debating points.
Not hearing what your customer wants means you can end up having fruitless, circular arguments about who said what. Someone might even get fired. It’s far better to have structured discussions about who needs what.
Solution
The solution to this is to start thinking like you were taking an order in a restaurant. You may never have noticed this, but usually the person taking your order repeats it back to you and makes sure that nothing has been missed.
So, when you think you have understood, stop and confirm that you have understood by repeating back what you heard in your own language. Keep doing this until you confirm that you have understood.
Another thing to remember is that people have different ways of learning and understanding things. Some use words, some are visual, some use other channels. So when you document things it’s a bad idea to just use words. Use pictures too. They don’t have to be drawn really well – but map from and to states, look at how things change over time by using time lines.
Images and the use of colours are far less ambiguous than words when describing complicated problems. Even complex algorithms can often be described using pictures.
Upside
When you do this there is far less chance of doing things over again, rework. Also less ambiguity means more productivity. Of course, the big benefit is no-one will get fired.
Actions
Develop the habit of repeating things back to your customers to check you’ve understood what they asked for.
Make sure meeting agendas include this feedback.
Change any document templates used to describe customer needs so that they use diagrams as well as words, model changes in state visually, where possible capture requirements using as much information as possible.
Follow up with your customer. Make small changes and keep checking.