WTF are you talking about? Acronyms, jargon and abbreviations

The meeting

Imagine that you walk into a meeting room (or join a video call, which might be much more probable these days), and you see that the presenter is already showing his slidedeck.

You sip your coffee or tea, and you start to listen.

Even though presenting person has a very nice voice, uses enganging plots and figures, but something is not right.

The feeling of confusion is growing proportionally to the number of acronyms used in the presentation.

BDB.

WUZ.

MIRPCO.

SOLID.

TDD.

PLP.

All people seem to understand what the presenter is talking about, but you are lost.

Someone asks a question about the BDB and the discussion starts.

Suddenly a third person joins the discussion about BDB and asks about the connection between BDB and WUZ.

The conversation gets a little heated, and you feel that you are not part of it.

People are nodding, confirming they are on the same page, but you are not.

Later in the kitchen, you ask a colleague about the BDB acronym, and he explains that it stands for "Big Data Builder".

Strange, probably some internal tool that you don't know about.

The confusion comes as you don't know if you should know about it - meaning, ask more questions.

WTF?

What do you think, dear Reader? Does it sound familiar?

Can you recall a situation when you were sitting in a meeting in which "the business people" seemed to discuss topics that you had no clue about?

And on the other hand, have you ever presented anything to people from different "domain" and used tons of jargon, without asking if all is understood?

It's quite typical to make people feel lost and feel lost yourself - and meetings were supposed to make everyone on be the same page, isn't it?

Using acronyms has its own purpose and usefulness, but it can also be a source of confusion and miscommunication.

Why do we use acronyms?

To make the communication smoother, more efficient and faster, right?

But there is an assumption - that all people know what the acronym stands for.

Same goes with jargon, abbreviations and other language patterns that are used in the communication - typically they work well inside of a particular bubble, in which people are familiar with them.

And what about communicating across the bubbles?

Exiting the knowledge boundary in which we typically work and operate, in order to communicate ideas, concepts and information, is enormously important.

Solving problems is often (I wanted to say "always", but it's dangerous assumption) a consequence of collaboration.

Making collaboration harder

Ready to make others' lives more difficult?

Use acronyms without asking if everyone knows what they mean. This will help you lose your audience, create confusion and make other people feel dumb.

Use jargon assuming everyone knows what you are talking about. Such approach enables creating the right silo in which you can operate and look as an expert in matter.

When talking about ideas and abstract concepts, do not visualize them or explain them using examples. Thanks to that, the cognitive load of others will skyrocker and they will get lost in the maze of abstractions.

Use the right tone indicating that all the people in the room should know what you are talking about. Many of the attendees will feel ashamed and you will get less questions which basically makes your life easier.

Easy, isn't it?

Of course dear Reader, I am not suggesting you to do any of the above.

"Just sayin'".

Buckle up, there's no time!

One might easily say that explaining things over and over again is a waste of time, "as people should know it already".

Spending 10 minutes explaining all required lingo for sure costs time, but what do we get back in return?

People won't build assumptions.

Assumptions that are one of the biggest sources of failures, bugs, problems and misunderstandings.

So we prevent possible collaboration "catastrophes" just by spending a little bit more time on building up common understanding.

Communicating "models" that we might "have" in our minds, so that we can actually work together as we "see things in the same way".

Considering not all people are on the same page, can we really conclude we work together?

I mean, physically it looks like we do, but a lot of the work is done on the symbolic, abstract level, which is not visible to the naked eye.

Wouldn't it be a decent idea to slow down a little bit, in order to speed up later - thanks to the overmind we create when we work together (you mind find it interesting to read The ambiguity of team work as well).

That is also one of the core ideas communicated through DDD (Domain-Driven Design) Strategic Design - Ubiquitous Language.

Let the model represents the language we use.

Let us use the same language when talking about the problem.

Making collaboration easier

So how to make collaboration easier?

Assume that acronyms might be not understood by everyone. If you can, visualize them or briefly explain them.

Ensure that all questions are welcomed by saying that people should ask whenever they feel lost. This will help you to create a safe environment in which people can ask questions without feeling ashamed.

When talking about ideas and abstract concepts, visualize them or/and explain them using examples. Not everyone is capable of grasping abstract ideas easily and examples might be really helpful.

Make your voice feel welcoming and respectful. You might not be aware of it, but your tone might indicate that you are not open to questions and discussions.

Tough, isn't it?

Of course dear Reader, I am suggesting you to do all of the above (depending on the context, of course!).

"Just sayin'".

Saboteurs?

Note dear Reader that all of the tips from the previous section assume people in general have positive intentions.

Of course, as the world is wide and full of different people, there are also those who might not have the best intentions.

Some of the human beings might try exploit openness, transparency and willingness to help others.

It is hard to prevent such behaviours.

But based on my experience, most of the people are willing to help and collaborate.

Light defeats darkness.

Love defeats hate.

Don't talk about invisible things

One of the core principles to have in mind when designing systems is that we design them by/with/for people.

Almost on every step and level of abstraction, there is a human being that is involved in the process of growing the system.

This means we need to put empathy in the first place.

Next time dear Reader, when designing a presentation or showing anything to other people, at the beginning of the meeting, say it aloud in the calm way: