WEBVTT 00:00.360 --> 00:05.220 Let's talk a little more specifically about different communication styles you might see in use by engineers 00:05.220 --> 00:08.910 as opposed to other types of people in your organization. 00:09.180 --> 00:14.640 First of all, you're going to see a preference for written versus verbal communication with engineers. 00:14.640 --> 00:18.180 Typically speaking, that's because engineers work by typing a lot. 00:18.230 --> 00:22.740 You know, they're sitting at a desk writing code or writing out designs for things, writing out design 00:22.740 --> 00:23.520 documents. 00:23.550 --> 00:28.710 Typing is their primary form of communication, and it's easier to stick with that than to switch modes 00:28.710 --> 00:32.400 into some other verbal sort of communication or in-person mode. 00:32.430 --> 00:33.990 This is how they feel. 00:33.990 --> 00:34.830 Productive, right? 00:34.830 --> 00:38.760 So when you're at a keyboard, if you're an engineer, you're writing code, you're getting stuff done, 00:38.760 --> 00:43.350 you know, there's sort of this mental feedback loop of, Hey, I'm at a keyboard, I'm typing stuff, 00:43.350 --> 00:45.420 I'm accomplishing things, I'm doing things. 00:45.420 --> 00:51.750 And that might be part of why we have sort of a bias toward being at the keyboard as opposed to communicating 00:51.750 --> 00:52.530 verbally. 00:53.160 --> 00:57.090 And if you drag them away from that keyboard, they're going to feel like they're a little bit unproductive, 00:57.090 --> 00:57.360 right? 00:57.360 --> 01:02.670 So whenever you do drag them away for an in-person meeting or to talk to them face to face or whatever 01:02.670 --> 01:07.560 it might be, take them out to lunch, even a team building event that may be well intentioned, fundamentally, 01:07.560 --> 01:10.950 you're taking them away from the environment where they can be productive, where they feel like they're 01:10.950 --> 01:14.310 contributing to the organization and they feel like they're making a difference. 01:14.310 --> 01:17.370 So you don't want to do that more than you have to, Right? 01:18.530 --> 01:22.940 Now, the other thing, too, that is even more important for engineers is that text based communication 01:22.940 --> 01:27.710 is just more efficient for them so they can process that asynchronously offline. 01:27.710 --> 01:27.890 Right? 01:27.890 --> 01:33.800 If you come storming up to some engineer's desk and say, Hey, Janet, we need to talk about this, 01:33.800 --> 01:35.300 you know, you're going to just disturb her. 01:35.330 --> 01:37.520 You know, you're going to take her out of whatever she was doing. 01:37.520 --> 01:41.870 And it's going to take some time and effort to get back into that state of what they were doing before. 01:41.870 --> 01:43.220 And that's kind of annoying, right? 01:43.220 --> 01:49.070 So that's why you tend to see a lot of slack in engineering organizations or even old school email communication 01:49.070 --> 01:50.810 because it can be handled asynchronously. 01:50.810 --> 01:52.640 You don't have to stop what you're doing. 01:52.640 --> 01:55.760 You can just check on it when you're ready to when you're in between tasks. 01:55.760 --> 01:59.900 And it's more of a natural breaking point to process that kind of communication. 02:00.170 --> 02:03.860 The important thing here is that it preserves what we call flow state. 02:03.860 --> 02:08.780 So whenever you interrupt somebody in person, you're dragging them out of that state that they're in 02:08.780 --> 02:12.140 mentally, where they're focusing on creating whatever it is they're creating. 02:12.140 --> 02:17.120 It's kind of hard to describe to a non engineer, but when you're in the zone, as they say, writing 02:17.120 --> 02:20.190 code, your mind is kind of one with the machine there. 02:20.190 --> 02:22.770 It's it's a state that's hard to get into. 02:22.770 --> 02:27.930 And once you ripped out of it by being talked to in person, it's hard to get back into it. 02:27.930 --> 02:29.610 A lot of people misinterpret this. 02:29.610 --> 02:35.460 So if you come up to someone and say, Hey Bob and they look a little bit annoyed or startled, don't 02:35.490 --> 02:36.450 take it personally. 02:36.450 --> 02:40.350 That's just them being yanked out of that flow state and it can be kind of mentally jarring. 02:40.350 --> 02:45.390 It's kind of a shock to the system when that happens because when you're deeply focused on a task and 02:45.390 --> 02:49.740 suddenly you're torn away from that instantaneously, it can be a disconcerting thing. 02:49.740 --> 02:54.480 And that's why you might see engineers react that way when you approach them and speak to them verbally. 02:54.630 --> 03:00.720 Some studies have said that it can take up to 23 minutes to recover from an interruption like that. 03:00.720 --> 03:05.010 So if someone's in that flow state, getting stuff done, being hyper productive and you come along 03:05.010 --> 03:09.180 and say, Hey, I need to talk about this, you just cost them not only the time that you took to talk 03:09.180 --> 03:14.070 to them, but another 23 minutes for them to get back into that state of productivity. 03:14.070 --> 03:19.110 So this is why it's important to keep your communication written when possible and asynchronous when 03:19.110 --> 03:23.760 possible, as opposed to disturbing somebody in person and speaking verbally if you don't have to. 03:23.760 --> 03:26.700 Obviously, people can't live on a keyboard all the time. 03:26.700 --> 03:31.470 There are occasions where you want to where you must have verbal communication or in-person communication, 03:31.470 --> 03:34.680 but try to time that for points where it's not intrusive. 03:35.660 --> 03:39.260 If you're doing team building, if you're conveying, you're in a situation where you need to convey 03:39.260 --> 03:39.930 tone, right? 03:39.950 --> 03:44.000 You have more of a sensitive discussion to have where you're trying to deliver feedback in a sensitive 03:44.000 --> 03:44.450 manner. 03:44.480 --> 03:47.610 Those are all examples where, yes, you need to talk to somebody in person. 03:47.630 --> 03:49.220 You need to communicate verbally. 03:49.250 --> 03:50.420 You've got to use your judgment there. 03:50.420 --> 03:52.340 But again, be sensitive to when you do it. 03:52.370 --> 03:56.540 Try to do it during a natural breaking point during the day when you're not going to disturb somebody 03:56.540 --> 03:58.280 who's in the middle of writing some code.