Email clutter can mount up at work, so Behance’s William Allen recommends having a face-to-face talk. And no matter how tricky the conversation is, there is one prerequisite to all such meetings: “be interruptible”.
Photo by tvol
If you are too busy to listen to your team, don’t expect them to make the time to listen to each other. Yes, you might occasionally lose the deep focus you had when you are interrupted. But an in-person conversation alleviates one of the greatest drains on company resources — a lack of clarity — so it is generally a worthy tradeoff.
On some occasions, you just need the other party to listen, so it might be advisable to clearly state at the start of the meeting if you can be interrupted or not. Chances are, saying that you can be interrupted will encourage others to pipe in when they feel the need to.
Never Stop Talking: How Small Teams Stay Great When They Grow [99u]
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