I hope to make this a regular place for me to post a few quick thoughts about what I learned over the past week.  These will sometimes be work-related, and sometimes they will be related to my hobbies or outside activities.

Last week, I learned a lot about joining a new team and jumping into projects.  I started my new position with Community and Economic Development about two weeks ago, so I am still relatively new.  As I have been working on projects, some of the things I am doing require  shadowing and extensive work with my new co-workers.

First, let me digress some.  My new co-workers are awesome. Whether they read this or not I would say that. They quickly welcomed me to the department and were willing to take a chance on some vegan peanut-butter and chocolate chip cookies I made for my first staff meeting here.  (The cookies were delicious, by the way, and I’ll post the recipe sometime in the future.)  Anyway, I am really excited to be working with such a dynamic bunch. I will surely be mentioning them as I learn things every week.

So, let’s return and get to the point, shall we? Last week I learned to be more careful with my presentation and phrasing of ideas. It’s all in the details, right? Up until now, I have probably focused more on getting the intended result achieved through communication, and less on the language I use to communicate that intended result.

The reason this was critical this past week is because sometimes others will repeat what I say, and I should avoid leaving room for what I say to be twisted into another message. Last week, someone repeated something I had said, but said it in a minimally different way that nonetheless changed the message significantly.

For example, let’s say Mike tells me that he wants us all to buy new shoes because he is worried that our shoes would not get us through an upcoming hike. I suggest we buy some custom-made shoes from Jane, but they will be expensive and take a few weeks. Mike says he’s worried about the quality of Jane’s product, and she is quite expensive. His main reason, however, is that there are already great hiking shoes out there and we don’t need to wait until Jane can make our custom shoes. Now, I must communicate that to our friends going on the hike.

My mistake last week, if applied to this (terrible) example, was expressing to our hiking buddies that Mike wanted us to buy new shoes for all of the reasons above.  I should have just communicated the information about finding off-the-shelf shoes and left out the concerns about quality, time, and expense. Those could be back-up reasons if I felt they were necessary, but I should not communicate on behalf of Mike unless he expressly wants me to.  Avoiding the more sensitive topics also protects the information from being distorted.

The second thing I learned is about co-worker styles and personalities.  Since I’m new, I’m learning all about how they like to communicate, collaborate, and share information. One example appropriate to share is that we have found ourselves communicating frequently from cubicle to cubicle.  Five of us sit within a few cubicles of each other, so we can mostly just talk amongst ourselves.  Sometimes we have had even miniature cubicle conferences, which is quite effective.  We’re lucky to not have any true neighbors that would be bothered by our cross-talk.

I surely have more to learn, obviously, about the communication styles and personalities of my co-workers. But this is a great starting place. I look forward to many more cubicle conferences and chances to learn.