I once had a boss who rarely shared information and never in a timely way. My office happened to be in a different building than his, so getting to our weekly one-on-one meeting took a little effort. But not only did he cancel most of our meetings, he did so without notice. When we did meet, he provided little or no clarity. And he dodged most of my questions with “I’ll have to get back to you on that.” It was maddening!
Most under-communication is inadvertent. People are simply unaware of the gap between what’s in their mind and what’s in yours. A team of researchers writing in the Journal of Political Economy labeled this phenomenon “the curse of knowledge.” It means that when you know something, it’s very hard to remember that other people don’t. Fortunately, the solution is remarkably simple.
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