TL;DR Nobody has the time or the long focus span in this age. So Organizations need to dispose of unnecessary policies and concise their existing policies. Projects should make incremental project plans, risk registers, etc. And the teams should learn to write concise emails and have 15-30-minute meetings.
When are we going to learn this? Times are changing, work is changing, work ways are changing and so should our policies, plans, presentations, and communications.
Even those evil credit card companies have started summarizing the most important (greedy) terms separately in a bigger font. Why are the corporate citizens still stuck in the verbose muck?
As Technology companies why can’t you ‘optimize‘ your policies in a similar way that employees optimize their code? Why are you still insisting on monstrous project plans while practicing ‘Agile‘. Why do HRs and Execs enjoy writing a novela even for the most basic messages?
Who has the time? Who has an attention span of more than 30 seconds in this day and age? And why do some people still carry the wrong notion that others revere them enough, to read through a 500-line email or sit through their 30-minute speeches?
As an Organization you expect your employees to keep up with changing times, why won’t you?
Squeeze those Policies
You are not the government to publish loads of lengthy policies where the crux is buried deep inside. Squeeze those policies, and make them crisp, direct, and understandable. Better still make reels and TikTok videos to make employees understand them better. Don’t unnecessarily make policies and procedures for everything, let things be fluid and see how your teams handle the situations. Maybe you will be surprised at how well they can self-govern themselves without the need for those archaic policies.
Be Agile in True Sense
On the one hand, you boast of following Agile principles in your project, and on the other, you still want those lengthy yesteryear MS project plans that can ‘predict‘ the future and take care of all the project risks. Was that ever true in your entire career? Be Agile in the true sense, things change multiple times (even in your sprints) so why not evolve the plan as you go along? 4-6 weeks of the plan is good enough in the current times.
Shorten those Emails and Meetings
Don’t write a song or a love(hate) letter, just give them the facts. Shorten those emails, and don’t embellish them with unnecessary adjectives and salutations (they already know if you respect them or not).
Five lines are good, two are even better, and if you need more than 10 then better pick up that phone. You have heard the meetings are usually a waste of time and observed it too. Half of them are late (due to their previous meeting, and the other half are working on something else, or are on their phones during the meetings). Get out of the habit of hours of meetings, keep it max 30 minutes, and better a standup of 15. Everybody likes a short meeting, but no one dares to change the norm, go ahead and take a stab at it.
Don’t waste other’s time and don’t let others waste yours.