This is a communication technique I use all the time with my boss or team mates: Tell what I intent to do at time x, unless there’s a stop/change signal from someone.
Example message
Today I spoke to candidate x. (S)he failed our hiring standards when it came to answering JS questions, but on the other hand (s)he had a nice repository on GitHub. Unless I hear other opinions until tomorrow evening, I will reject the candidate.
Benefits
Benefits you can expect if you use this communication strategy:
- Your actions never are surprises. You announced them upfront. Unless your decisions tend to be questionable, you build trust with everyone around you.
- You are giving sensible status updates, which are actionable.
- You are never blocked, because you are not waiting for others to make decisions. There’s just a small delay to give others the chance to chime in.
- You demonstrate initiative. If you show good judgment for a while, your boss will let you make your own calls and you’ll work on “auto-pilot” - to your bosses and your advantage.
- If a decision turns out to have been wrong, it’s impossible to put all blame on you, since you can proof that everyone related to the decision was aware and did not speak up against it.