Efficient protocols for technical communication

Efficiency.

• It is expensive to figure out what they know and what they don’t know
• The speaker assumes that the listener knows most of the steps and only the last one is unknown.
• Listeners ask immediate questions about what they don’t understand.
• The speaker explains what was asked is a good idea (Delayed Evaluation kind of idea).

But realistically.

• If the listener lacks self-assurance.
  • I’m sorry for asking so many questions because there are so many things I don’t understand.
• When there is more than one listener.
  • I don’t know, but maybe others do, and I’ll get in trouble if I interrupt them and waste their time.
• The phenomenon that listeners cannot “immediately ask questions about things they don’t understand” often occurs for reasons such as the following
  • In that case, the speaker interprets the lack of a question as “the listener understands”
  • So, continue to explain what you know, assuming you know what you’re talking about.
  • Then the listener becomes even more confused.

What should we do?

• I don’t know.
• I found a very efficient knowledge exchange going on at a certain place, and when I wondered why it was so efficient here, I thought it must be because the participants generally have high self-esteem and ask questions without feeling ashamed of what they don’t know.
  • Cause of “high self-esteem, no shame in not understanding” “If properly explained, there is no way I would not understand, so the problem is that you are not explaining field-specific terms properly, and I will point out the problem, so you better explain it properly.”
• It should be considered as a GIVEN constraint, since it is not something that can be raised by saying, “Make your self-esteem high.”
• The speaker should not put the responsibility on one side, like “it’s the listener’s responsibility to ask questions.
  • Communication failure is a failure of both speaker and listener.
  • The speaker should observe the facial expressions of the other party to see if they understand, and check from time to time to see if they are getting the message.
    • That’s a good argument, but it’s difficult. I will be careful.
• Should the person teaching ask questions?
  • I think I need some tips on how to ask questions.
    • What don’t you understand?” Then, it seems to be no good.
    • Why don’t you understand?” is no good no matter what you think.
  • Concern that people with low self-esteem will eventually say, “I’m sorry I can’t answer your questions.
• Assuming you know everything but the last step, can you explain the situation?
• In the meantime, can you explain anything?
  • In some cases, they explain at length where it does not seem necessary.

Or vice versa.

• Cases where the listener has high self-esteem but cannot admit that there is something he or she does not understand.

• When you hear the first “difficult explanation”, you start to get angry without “asking questions about what you don’t understand”.

  • It’s hard to explain,” “They’re deliberately trying to smoke you out by using difficult terms,” “A smart person should be able to explain things in a way that you can understand.”

• I’m not an esper, so I can’t guess what “one individual thinks they don’t understand”.

• If there is a need for the explainer to “understand easily” because he/she is a customer or a supervisor, it may be difficult to manifest because the explainer bears the cost to solve the problem?

• About Communication

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