I've certainly been misunderstood more than once. I've also misunderstood people who thought they were being perfectly clear.
That particular example is intended to be an example of a well-intentioned manager sending a message but it not being received. Maybe it's time pressure, or an interruption, or just bad wording. "Y'all, we need to change 'Login' ...oh, hang on, I need to take this call."
The next paragraph is an example of exactly what you're talking about—where the team shares information with the manager, the manager learns something about the system, and it leads to improved trust between team and manager.
I think you're taking "there's a good chance your team didn't understand what you told them" to mean "your team is so dumb they don't understand basic words and you need to correct them". It's meant as a value-neutral description of something that's really common in human interactions: someone tries to communicate X, but what's received is different than X. In this case, that's on the manager to fix.
So...how could I edit that paragraph so it comes across better, without trying to incorporate some of the things that came before (admit you're not the expert, ask questions, etc)?
I could make it even more ridiculous:
> For example, if you just asked them to change the text on the "Login" button, and they're talking about how that means upgrading the load balancer and switching to a NoSQL database, there's a good chance your team didn't understand what you told them.
I could try to make the error attribution more obvious:
> For example, if you just asked them to change the text on the "Login" button, and they're talking about new libraries and rewriting the credential store, there's a good chance you didn't communicate what you thought you did.
I could add some corrective actions later on:
> For example, if you just asked them to change the text on the "Login" button, and they're talking about new libraries and rewriting the credential store, there's a good chance your team didn't understand what you told them. Take the time to make sure they understood correctly. If they did, you've got something to learn.
I think you're railing against the exact sort of thing I'm working to fix here: people who think their title means they don't have to listen to their team, or that they're automatically an expert because of their title, or something. So your input on how to make it land with you (because it obviously didn't as originally written) would be helpful.
I've certainly been misunderstood more than once. I've also misunderstood people who thought they were being perfectly clear.
That particular example is intended to be an example of a well-intentioned manager sending a message but it not being received. Maybe it's time pressure, or an interruption, or just bad wording. "Y'all, we need to change 'Login' ...oh, hang on, I need to take this call."
The next paragraph is an example of exactly what you're talking about—where the team shares information with the manager, the manager learns something about the system, and it leads to improved trust between team and manager.
I think you're taking "there's a good chance your team didn't understand what you told them" to mean "your team is so dumb they don't understand basic words and you need to correct them". It's meant as a value-neutral description of something that's really common in human interactions: someone tries to communicate X, but what's received is different than X. In this case, that's on the manager to fix.
So...how could I edit that paragraph so it comes across better, without trying to incorporate some of the things that came before (admit you're not the expert, ask questions, etc)?
I could make it even more ridiculous: > For example, if you just asked them to change the text on the "Login" button, and they're talking about how that means upgrading the load balancer and switching to a NoSQL database, there's a good chance your team didn't understand what you told them.
I could try to make the error attribution more obvious: > For example, if you just asked them to change the text on the "Login" button, and they're talking about new libraries and rewriting the credential store, there's a good chance you didn't communicate what you thought you did.
I could add some corrective actions later on: > For example, if you just asked them to change the text on the "Login" button, and they're talking about new libraries and rewriting the credential store, there's a good chance your team didn't understand what you told them. Take the time to make sure they understood correctly. If they did, you've got something to learn.
I think you're railing against the exact sort of thing I'm working to fix here: people who think their title means they don't have to listen to their team, or that they're automatically an expert because of their title, or something. So your input on how to make it land with you (because it obviously didn't as originally written) would be helpful.