Engineer-A-Business

Every profession has its own style for communicating ideas and project specifications.  This system is necessary to maximize efficiency and effectiveness, but only when they work with colleagues with similar training and experiences.  When they are interacting solely with members of their own or closely related professions, they can communicate with fewer words and eliminate with the ambiguity associated with holding long-winded discussions in lay man’s terms to articulate product development and business objectives.  As a result, engineers working on developing new products often get in the habit of using their own communication styles to communicate specifications and requirements.  What many engineers fail to grasp is that most people in other divisions or businesses will be unable to understand them.  Developing new products based on miscommunication is likely to lead to some features and specifications that are more costly or do not meet customer requirements.

When working with a smaller business, astute engineers may find that the jargon they have gotten used to using may be of less value to them for a couple of reasons.  Most new businesses have a very heterogeneous culture and there may only be a single engineer on staff.  In smaller businesses the members of the team are also required to wear many different hats and engineers are no exception.  If they make a habit of using a language that is preferred by a small fraction of the colleagues that they deal with, they are more likely to cause confusion and misunderstandings than they would in a more specialized role in a larger organization.  In a larger organization, members of the engineering team may receive product specifications from the head of development team who is coordinating with marketing staff.  In smaller businesses, engineers will probably have to discuss these specifications with the marketing team themselves and they need to learn to make sure that they can understand the project requirements that are explained to them.

On the other hand, engineers and other members of new businesses can still try to leverage the benefits of using professional communication styles by learning the technical and informal language of other disciplines.  The most difficult part is not learning the communication styles of other professions, but rather in developing the discipline and awareness to know which settings it is most appropriate to use a particular communication style.

Last Updated (04 June 2010)