17 tweets · September 2022 · 34 likes · 0 retweets · read on Twitter
I'm kind of a communication guy, but I actually agree. > Communication is a sign of dysfunction. It means people aren't working together in a close, organic way. We should be trying to figure out a way for teams to communicate less with each other, not more. Thread to explore:
Communication, when it is occurring, needs to work. But the *need* for communication (ie explicit coordination) especially lots of it, is a sign that you're out of sync!
Then the Q is how to get back in sync. @nosilverv adds: > And no explicit deliberation isn’t the only way to get sync > Literally do things together, let your bodies communicate, the bandwidth is so much higher ie what Bezos is saying: > working together in a close, organic way
In order to get people working in close, organic way, afaict you need two kinds of trust. This uhhh vaguely maps onto the "exit, voice" thing so I'm gonna steal those terms and call them exit trust and voice trust.
Exit Trust is the trust required to grant autonomy to other agents, so they don't have to waste time/effort/attention/sanity asking for permission for things.
Exit Trust creates the outer boundary of the people working together closely & organically. It's recursive: Group A needs to trust Group B in order for B to have autonomy to work closely & organically, and B needs to trust that A trusts B.
Voice Trust is the trust required for a person or group (with adequate autonomy from the outside world) to internally get the perspectives of its various people or parts in sync and settle on a course of action that will be carried out.
Voice Trust is what maintains the inner health of the group. People need to feel grounded in their own perspectives & knowings in order to be able to really hear and understand others.
Exit & Voice Trust apply on different fractal scales, too. Within a small close team, people still need to give each other autonomy as individuals to do their respective jobs (exit). And within a person, we need to learn to listen & integrate our different voices/views.
Upwards in scale, an organization comprised of many teams still does need to have adequate voice between those teams, even if Bezos is right that the total volume should be less. And the org needs exit trust—for it & its partners to be not meddling in each other.
Anyway! The implications of these two kinds of trust required for healthy teams is that if you're having trouble coordinating closely, either of these might be a leverage point.
Bezos, in this frame, was saying it was not enough exit trust. But he doesn't just say "do it"—"FIGURE OUT a way for teams to communicate less" ie some communication may be required in the meantime, to establish the boundary of where one team's scope ends and the other's begins.
Also some ongoing communication is still required to make sure teams are on the same page, eg that one team isn't using metric units and the other imperial. Otherwise you're trusting but naively so. Gotta ensure the interface is adequate.
Likewise, internally to a group, if syncing isn't happening adequately, it's (usually) not enough to declare "this is a safe space for all viewpoints" and expect people to suddenly start revealing things, if they fear blame or judgement. That trust has to be built.
Voice isn't about quantity of communication but quality. It's about getting yourself and others heard when that's what matters.
Exercise for the reader: explain how both of these forms of trust are secretly this 👇
Aha, these actually map even closer than I thought! voice (remake the system from within) exit (leave and build something new) definitions from their original source (Hirschman, as quoted on wikipedia page on Balaji talking about The Network State)
