Problems With Traditional Communications

Here's a set of Team Work problems I typically see with decisions made via meetings, email, group forum software, etc.

• issues/questions rarely get fully and explicitly resolved. Discussions fragment into lots of small threads, which are never drawn together. Sometimes this works out [OK], because everyone happens to have the same conclusion in their heads. But often different people end up with dramatically different thoughts.

• even when there's a moment of shared understanding, it dissolves over time. People's memories change. And because "the record" is spread over lots of notes and messages, it's difficult to go back and clear things up.

• even if that doesn't happen, things change over time. The team knows that some plans need to be re-examined, but because so much is implicit, it's hard to know whether everything necessary has been covered.

• attempts to impose highly structured procedural systems tend to create such burden that people sneak around the system to get work done.