How we don't communicate and then miscommunicate?!

Within the last 2 days, i experienced several types of communication, more like non-communication, that i feel leads to miscommunication. for the heck of it, i will write about it...

the first is a series of sms exchanges that i had with one staff member today.

me: "what is the number of aaa yesterday, how many ccc and how many at bbb?"

no reply from staff for about 1 hour

me: "i was walking through your dept and i saw this... when will you fix it?"

Staff: "this was just installed..., will be fixed by friday."

me: "good, thanks. by the way, did you receive my first sms?"

Staff: "yes"

me: "reply?"

After 15 mins...

Staff: "att 447, adm 137, xx"

Question: how did i feel about this sms communication? what do i think the staff member is trying to communicate with me?

to be frank, i feel ignored - whether this is the genuine sentiment or not - it is a potential miscommunication. this feeling was not strong in the beginning, more of curiousity and some anxiousness. curious because i am not sure whether the sms was received by staff or not, anxious because the question in the sms was an important one. however all these feelings change when the reply to my sms "... did you receive my earlier sms" was only met with only a "yes". It confirms that i am being ignored! the truth could well be that the staff has been spending time gathering the necessary information to provide a complete reply and was NOT trying to ignore me, but there is no other information to conclude otherwise. in this case, i gave the staff member the benefit of the doubt and replied "thanks" to his sms. end of case 1.

second, this is a combination of emails and smses with a staff... it goes like this

last week

me:email "... can you pls follow up on aaa, work with xxx and resolve..." [email contains background of situation etc etc]

no reply

next day

me:email "...fyi and pl work with xxx on this. can you pl stay on top of this ..."

no reply

yesterday

me:sms "... by the way, did you receive the emails that i sent you on aaa last week? i did not get any reply from you..."

staff:sms "... yes i received the emails and all xxx are cleared"

me:sms "...thanks, i don't know because i did not get any reply from you..."

silence from staff

question: how did i feel and what do i conclude about staff?

first, issues that i had sent to staff for resolution is important. my email to staff to take charge is an instruction that needs to be followed through. when there is no reply after the first email, i was fine because we are all swarmed with email and will need some time to get to. when there is no reply after the second email, i am beginning to wonder whether the matter will receive timely attention... still my negative perceptions are no cast in stone. however when i realised that the staff member actually received all the emails and have failed to reply with even a simple "ok" as acknowledgement, i begin to wonder if i am being ignored - an opportunity for miscommunication. maybe the staff is so engrossed in getting the assigned work done that he/ she had neglected to reply, maybe i am not being ignored after all. but in the absence of other information, can i conclude otherwise?

third, a somewhat positive (and witty) example within the setting of physical meeting with a deadline for delivery the next day assigned...

me (at meeting): "... i would like to see aaa done by tomorrow..."

today (the "tomorrow") at 6pm, i was out of office by 3pm to make a visit to another hospital but did not see aaa and was unsure whether aaa will be done, so i sent an sms

me: " ... will aaa be put up today?"

within 1 minute

staff: "... are you here, or is it telepathy? we are outside your office handing aaa now..."

How did i feel about this communication? frankly i sent the reply because i want to be encouraged that staff will keep to what they promised in the form of a deadline. if it is done, i will have greater confidence in the staff and if not i would like to use it as an education about deadlines. i would have loved an sms to tell me when i can expect aaa to be done but i thought the witty sms reply helped. i laughed when i read the sms, feeling assured i went about doing what i was doing... happy actually.

we really need to manage our communication well, otherwise we stand to be misunderstood and worst still trust is eroded. the one thing that i have learnt all these years is that trust once lost will take a long time to rebuild or in some cases never regained. if there is a simple principle that i use, it is when in doubt how much to communicate to your boss - err on the side of over communicating. simple acknowledgement helps.

in the absence of information, all of us draw our own conclusions, sometimes rightly and many times wrongly. this would be so unfortunate.

personally, i will speak with the staff concerned because the electronic medium is never the best sole medium for communication. however with greater adoption and the fast speed of life, we depend on it. use it, don't abuse it, most of all don't be its victim.

a simple reply can save lots of trouble... views?