“Please handle. ASAP.” And then you see the email chain bouncing between seven different teams. 😬
Ever felt like you’re speaking a completely different language… even when everyone’s using the same words?
This week I attended a brilliant talk by Maya Weintraub Kaye gave an insightful session on the Multilingual Mindset: Communication & Culture at the London WIT (run by the inimitable Louise Lockie ❤️) and it reminded me why communication failures sink more projects than technical issues ever will.
She opened with the tragic story of Korean Air Flight 801 – where cultural hierarchy stopped crew members from forcefully raising concerns to the lead pilot.
The result was catastrophic: 228 lives lost.💔
How many times have you been in a sprint call where someone wanted to flag a risk but stayed silent?
Where the issue festered until it exploded later?
Maya introduced the DISC communication framework:
🔴 Dominant – “Cut to the chase. What’s the goal?”
🟡 Influencer – “Let’s brainstorm! How do we feel about this?”
🟢 Steady – “Let’s think this through carefully. What’s safest?”
🔵 Conscientious – “Show me the data. What do the numbers say?”
Some people lean towards one or two styles but a leader needs to be able to use and adapt them all.
When she worked with Mexican clients, she had to unlearn her direct style and write longer emails full of courtesies and context. 😁
It felt painfully slow, but it built trust.
When she worked with outsourced teams, she had to strip everything down to bullet points – no fluff, just action items.
The real skill isn’t making sure you speak. It’s making sure you’re understood.
That means:
🍩 Pausing to ask: “Where is this person coming from?”
🍩 Matching your communication style to theirs
🍩 Following up with “Let me make sure I’ve understood correctly…”
🍩 Building rapport before diving into deliverables
Culture is really about how we process information, make decisions, and express concerns.
We all have communication personas.
The question is: are we aware of them?
As Maya said, culture is just an operating system.
We need to learn the language – not just the words, but the why behind them.
Because the best technical solution in the world means nothing if people can’t communicate about it.
And adoption fails when we forget: it’s always about the humans first.
#LonSFWIT is one of my favourite meetups, especially the not-necessary-tech-or-sf-related brag/celebration session (I usually do a writeup for my peeps on @bluesky) this time including successfully fighting illegal eviction, daughter showing up poopy teacher, winning gold medal in martial art, and new job congrats to Ellie joining Collinson!) 🥰
We all need a safe community where we are elevated, supported and celebrated, and this is one of mine.
So… What’s your communication style? 📢
Have you ever had to adapt how you communicate for a team or client?
