Have you ever overheard a newsroom conversation and only understood every other word being said? Or been in the middle of a conversation with a colleague and realize they misinterpreted something you said two months ago in a meeting? You’re not alone.
One of the impacts technology has had on news is the rapid, chaotic expansion of the vocabulary needed to effectively collaborate and be successful in the digital era. Editors, product managers, technologists, and others come into conversations representing different cultures and using different words to describe what they do. This can be alienating, and slow down conversations about strategy or collaboration. For example:
*Did the OKR team hit their KPIs?
*Are you on Polymer yet?
*What part of the funnel will that target?
Learn how to navigate this complicated new landscape of vocabulary words while playing a few rounds of Balderdash, a “board game of bluffing”, where each group attempts to define terms our colleagues use in the office, and see when we hit the mark.
Full disclosure: this session builds upon one we ran at SRCCON:WORK in Philadelphia last year about this same important topic: communication and its role in collaboration. This time we’ll run similar exercises, but also share a long and exceptional list of approaches and tactics shared there for improving conversations with colleagues from different backgrounds.