Communication, like breathing, is one of things that humans must absolutely do in order to survive (citation needed).  Since we’re born until we die we’re constantly communicating something, in some way.  This means we’re effectively practicing this skills all the time… which only makes it more interesting that we’re all (generally) so bad at it.

They (PMI in this case) tells me that 90% of project management is communication.  I would further this, and say that 90% of our jobs, and general existence in reality, is communication.  We tell our loved ones we miss them.  Our children communicate that they’re hungry.  Our co-workers communicate status updates.  Even NOT communicating can be perceived as communicating (after all, ignoring someone tells them something…) (also, if you don’t notice someone is trying to communicate, you’re effectively communicating to them you’re oblivious).

On the plus side, we use this skill ALL the time.  This would suggest that we should be getting better at it as we go.  On the downside, we’re rarely consciously trying to improve this skill, meaning all that practice time is effectively wasted.

Shooting free-throws in basketball is a great analogy.  Once approach would be to just continually shoot the ball again and again and again.  Another approach would be to shoot the ball, then stop and honestly think about what you could do better (or not do at all).  The first approach might get you more repetitions, however, the second will give you conscious improvement.  Sure, it’s a bit of a pain to stop and critically examine yourself (not to mention ego-brusing at times), but the feedback gives you much better results.

Communication is no different.  Many of us get TONS of reps in during the week… but many of us also fail to stop and think about how we can make those reps better (When was the last time you asked yourself if you’re communicating the right way?).

One of the best pieces of advice I got on how to improve communication is to simply keep doing it until someone tells you to stop.  Need help with a project?  Keep bringing it up in different ways at different times until you get help.  Need to let someone know when you’re available and you’d like to talk?  Keep talking/texting/emailing until they get the point.  This doesn’t mean send them an email every 10 seconds, but keep up the communication until you’re heard, and you know they heard you.

The good news is this skill is relatively easy to practice.  The next time you need to communicate something you feel is important, pick at least 5 different times (and ideally different ways) of communicating that.  One example of this:

1. Bring up your idea/need/etc. During a team meeting

2. Send a followup email immediately after the meeting.

3. Drop a slack message to folks the next day

4. Two days later send another followup email

5. The day after that bring it up in your meeting again

The point here is to ensure others received, and more importantly, understood, your message.  By hitting them at different times in different ways you help ensure you cut through the noise (e.g. the 10000 other emails they have), and solicit any questions.  And if all else fails, at the very least you have a great “paper” trail of your attempts.