Rules of thumb, and general philosophy

Below you’ll find a collection of general principles we try to keep in mind at White Rabbit when communicating with teammates, across the company, and with the public. Our style of communication may be challenging at first if you’re coming from a workplace where frequent meetings are the norm. While these ideas aren’t strict requirements, they serve as shared practices to draw upon when we do the one thing that affects everything else we do: communicate.

• Real-time sometimes; asynchronous most of the time.
• Internal communication based on long-form writing, rather than a verbal tradition of meetings, speaking, and chatting, leads to a welcomed reduction in meetings, video conferences, calls, or other real-time opportunities to interrupt and be interrupted.
• Give meaningful discussions a meaningful amount of time to develop and unfold. Rushing to judgement, or demanding immediate responses, only serves to increase the odds of poor decision making.
• Never expect or require someone to get back to you immediately unless it’s a true emergency. The expectation of an immediate response is toxic.
• Poor communication creates more work.
• Ask yourself if others will feel compelled to rush their response if you rush your approach. The end of the day has a way of convincing you what you’ve done is good, but the next morning has a way of telling you the truth. If you aren’t sure, sleep on it before saying it.
• If you want an answer, you have to ask a question. People typically have a lot to say, but they’ll volunteer little. Questioning others, early and often, helps people practice sharing, writing, and communicating.
• Urgency is overrated; ASAP is poison. Time is on your side, rushing makes conversations worse.
• Communication is lossy, especially verbal communication. Every hearsay hop adds static and chips at fidelity. Whenever possible, communicate directly with those you’re addressing rather than passing the message through intermediaries.
• Ask if things are clear. Ask what you left out. Ask if there was anything someone was expecting that you didn’t cover. Address the gaps before they widen with time.
• Communication often interrupts, so good communication is often about saying the right thing at the right time in the right way with the fewest side effects.

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