Add a draft for Beat the Drum

src/pages/blog/beat-the-drum.md

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+---
+layout: ../../layouts/BlogPostLayout.astro
+categories:
+  - communication
+date: "2024-08-24"
+unlisted: true
+title: Beat the Drum
+---
+
+My former COO gave me a piece of advice when I became a manager. He said that
+leaders have to deliver the same message again and again and again
+to make sure it actually gets through to everyone in the organization.
+Sometimes, it's also necessary to simplify the message and lose some nuance for
+it to actually sink in. The advice made sense to me at the time, but it became
+more concrete to me as I tried to apply it and as I noticed when leaders above
+me failed to do it. I brought it up to my former COO recently, and he put it in
+a fantastically pithy way by saying "yep, you have to beat the drum."
+
+In [old military situations,
+drums](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_drums) were used as a form of
+communication. They kept armies aligned on messages as simple as "advance" and
+"retreat." Similary, organizations need their leaders to continuously
+communicate to keep people aligned.
+
+The larger the organization, the more important this idea is. In a startup with
+a few people, it's easy for everyone to stay on the same page. In a massive
+company with thousands of people, everyone getting out of sync from each other
+is the default outcome. It takes active work to get everyone to even hear a
+particular message, more work to get them to remember it, and even more work to
+get them to act on it.
+
+This may seem wrong. If the CEO wants to send a message to everyone, they just
+need to send a company-wide email or mention it in an all-hands meeting, right?
+Nope, because there are so many ways for such a simple thing to fail.
+
+One person only skims their emails and didn't bother reading the CEO's detailed
+email.
+
+Another person was on vacation during the all-hands and never bothered to try to
+catch up on it.
+
+Another person was out sick and does want to catch up, but the all-hands wasn't
+recorded, and nobody took notes. The person asked someone else what the CEO
+said, resulting in a [game of
+telephone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_whispers) and a distorted
+message.
+
+Another person got the message but then forgot it a few days later. This is the
+[forgetting curve](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgetting_curve) at work. If
+the CEO doesn't repeat the message regularly, the memory of that message
+disappears.
+
+Another person disagreed with the message, ignored it, and nobody cared. This
+person eventually learned to just disregard everything the CEO says.
+
+Another person doesn't have all the industry knowledge that the CEO does and
+doesn't really understand what the CEO said as a result.
+
+There are so many failure modes, even though the message is coming from the CEO,
+the person who should have the easiest time getting a message across. Even the
+CEO needs to repeat a message multiple times and figure out how to word it so
+that people truly get it.
+
+I think one reason it's actually hard for leaders to do this (beyond the fact
+that it takes work) is that it's an exercise in empathy. When you come up with a
+message, it's easy to remember it and understand it because it's your own
+creation. Ego is also a factor. Leaders have a tendency to believe that what
+they say is particularly important. But you have to put yourself in the mindset
+of the people you're trying to communicate to. If you spend weeks coming up with
+detailed goals and plans for your team, of course you're going to know them in
+and out. But someone who hears them for the first time is unlikely to
+immediately internalize them. You need to repeat them and put them somewhere for
+people to reference.
+
+It's a simple concept but takes discipline to apply. Figure out what's
+important for people to know. Say it. Say it again. Say it in a different
+medium. Say it more simply. Say it to different people. Just don't stop beating
+the drum.