A four-letter framework for making clearer requests and defining responsibilities at work. The speaker shows how to reduce miscommunication in remote teams by saying exactly what you need instead of assuming people understand.
What if I told you that a certain four letter word will allow you to communicate more clearly with bosses, clients, colleagues and direct reports so that you have fewer miscommunications, even if you're working remotely? And no, this is a four letter word that won't even get you fired. It might even get you promoted. To prove it to you, I'm going to play out a regular conversation at work and then we're going to rewrite it using the framework that I'll teach you in this video. Hey, don't you think we should update our careers page? It's pretty outdated. Yeah, definitely. Perfect. Oh, I'm gonna be meeting with Bob Suit. I wonder if he ever finished that website page. You gotta be freaking kidding. He still hasn't even hasn't done anything. Serenity now. Okay, so that was a really quick scene, but did you notice some of the challenges that were happening in that communication? If you were anything like me before I discovered this four letter framework, you probably can relate to that level of miscommunication. The solution is really. You know, actually, before I give you the solution, let's just watch it in action. Hey, Bob, I was reviewing the careers page and I noticed that the benefits section just is really off. I looked over the rest, it all looked fine, but that section's just not right. So really defining those zones of responsibility in your business, which I talk about more in this video, can be a really nice shortcut here. And if you'd like me to expand on this concept of who's in charge of what, just write the word charge in the comments below and I'll take that as a vote to make a part two video about that topic. Moving on to our next letter of cars, we are on to R, which stands for request. Here is where people get a little cocky. I'm just going to warn you. People are like, oh, request. Like what am I asking for? Duh, I'm asking for you to make an invoice. That's so mean. But like, at the same time, that's what happens here. We have this false confidence that of course we know how to ask for help. But what request calls for is more specific. More specific, ness. Spelling out exactly what you want the other person to do. What do you want them to tell you? Create for you, do for you, and preferably by when. That is what makes a good request. But if you're like most people listening to this, you're like, oh yeah, I know how to make a request. Sure, that's easy. Just ask for something most People do not do this. Well, we all go into this request with all the confidence in the world. But when we see the results of our request, that's when we really know how good or not good we are at specifying this. And I will tell you, most people suck. Well, just in general, but also at this particular stack. Do you know when you might be able to fix this? Just so you know, we are going to be Some things to be careful of when writing your request are things like saying can you. Can you make the invoice? That is a yes or no question. If you're not asking for their capability, don't use the word can. Another phrase that might not be so helpful is Tell me what you think of xyz. If you were actually asking for someone's opinion, great. You did an awesome job. But in most cases when someone says what would you think of? Or tell me your thoughts on? Or how should we go? What you're really asking for is either approval, decision, feedback, insights, specific details you didn't think of. Ask for that rather than saying what are your thoughts about having a two day virtual event? Instead, say I think we should do a two day virtual event. Is this idea approved? Or I don't think we should do a two day virtual event. Here's why I think a better alternative would be to do this. Which of the two options should we do? Please tell me. Vague. Clear. We want clear options here. If you're asking for an approval, say that. If you're asking for a debate, say that. If you're looking for someone to punch holes in an idea, say that. If you're looking for cheerleading, say that. And you know what? This tip about clarifying what you're actually looking for in a conversation can work really well outside of work conversations too. One tip I'll share here. Once again, if you are delegating upward in the business by delegating to clients or to your boss, this request can be helpful to put up at the very beginning of communication or or at the very end, depending on what format you're using. Now, I don't think RAS rolls off the tongue as well, which is why I like to stick with cars. And for most people that's the right flow of information. But if you're dealing with short attention spans or people who just need to get right to the point, putting that request up at the very top as a subject line or at the very bottom like a TLDR would be, those can be nice options to just make it a bit more accessible. Last but not least, we are at S, which stands for stakes. And stakes is where you clarify what is going to happen if the request is not filled or why is it important that the request is filled. The positive and negative outcomes of your request being, you know, sorted out are what you want to define in the stakes area. Just so you know, we are going to be hiring for a new role at the end of the month. So I'm going to have the job listing up in about two weeks and I'd like to make sure the page is good to go by then. Sometimes, though, it can be a bit harder to clarify the stakes. Such as if we wanted to reschedule the team meeting. Well, what are the stakes of not rescheduling that team meeting? We have a meeting when we don't need it. That can be a little squishy. If you find yourself in this squishy territory, I would encourage you to either dig deeper, ask why, and figure out why rescheduling a meeting could be valuable for. For example, if you have five people, they're $50 an hour. You have an hour long meeting. Rescheduling or canceling a meeting could save you $250. That's a pretty good stake to have. Or if you still can't figure out a meaningful stake to put down there, it might be a sign that your request is not actually worth doing. If you can't assign some kind of valuable stakes to this request, why are you bothering the person with it to begin with? Maybe just delete it. You know, just putting it out there. Oh, and quick tip here. If you are one of the many teams who is struggling with micromanagement, which I made up that term, but I feel like it captures it. It's. It's when you have a team that demands that you micromanage them. Other if you're in that kind of micromanagement by demand arena, you might find that this stakes area can be your way out of having to deal with tasks.
