Miscommunication

Despite my lack of real-world work experience, I have noticed a couple of instances of miscommunication, and the results that arose from them. The most notable situation that I can think of occurred last year in a school organization to which I belong. Basically, a person in charge sent out an email informing the members of the group that we would be conducting a fund-raiser the next week. The email was sent late in the week on Friday, and there was some confusion as to which week the person was referring to. Some people thought he actually meant two weeks from when it was sent. Most people were aware of when the event was scheduled but the confusion caused us to have fewer workers than we had anticipated. This led to an increased workload for those of us that made it to the event.

The simplest way that this miscommunication could have been prevented would have been for the person to have included the actual dates of the fundraiser in the email. This would have ensured there was no confusion concerning when the event was going to occur. I think a lot of times miscommunication results from people just assuming that everyone knows what they are talking about, instead of making sure they are giving complete and precise information.