Dan Stroot · I'm OK; the Bull is Dead.
I'm OK; the Bull is Dead.
Years ago I read a great article on clear communication. Unfortunately it is hard to find these days. I am reproducing it here for posterity and full attribution.
Notice the almost reverse order of these points in comparison with the common reporting style in which team members start with a long explanation of why things went wrong. Using the four steps described above, the project manager learns the most important information first, then he learns supporting information to help complete the story.
At first, reporting this way wasn’t a comfortable thing to do. It forced us to get to the point quickly and not resort to obfuscation. But not only did I learn to practice this style of status reporting at the office, I also taught it to my children.
Thank God my son was fine, but the comment about the dead bull intrigued me. We didn’t own a bull. Where was he? How did the bull die? And why was he telling me about it?
All right. He had gotten into some type of accident, the car wasn’t a total loss, and there was a dead bull (still a great puzzle). I wondered whether our car insurance covered dead bulls.
He then explained about the location of the accident and informed me that a person nearby had called the police and that he (Raj) had taken a few pictures of the accident scene.
At this point my wife woke up and asked, “Is that Raj, and is he OK?” I told her, “He is OK; the bull is dead.” This got her attention, and she was now wide awake.
Though a bit angry that Raj was so late coming home and that he had gotten into an accident, I was impressed by his calm demeanor and his ability to keep his wits about him. Raj went on to say, “You don’t need to rush. I’ll explain when I see you.” I hung up the telephone and began to get ready to drive to the scene of the accident.
I was greatly impressed by Raj’s succinct way of giving me the right information in the right detail without going into unnecessary explanations. In journalism, this is known as the inverted pyramid style, which begins with the conclusion, followed by the most important facts and, finally, the details. This contrasts with academic writing, which opens with a problem statement, elaborates on the background, discusses influencing factors and finally states the conclusions. When the academic approach is used to give project status reports, people who are still awake for the punch line are silently praying, “Please, God, kill me now.” That’s precisely why I start with the punch line.
For many project team members, starting with the punch line can be disconcerting, but we have found that once they become accustomed to it, they truly enjoy the clarity of the message and the time saved in getting the point across.