Communication Guidelines

Copyright

If you use an image, even in an internal presentation, you legally require permission to do so. If you use images published under a Creative Commons license, make sure you follow the terms of the license (i.e. you will often need to "attribute" the image).

I use a lot of images from Jono Hey at Sketchplanations on this site. Mainly because they are excellent but also because it clearly states this on the Sketchplanations website - "If you would like to use a sketchplanation in a blog post or for non-commercial purposes, please go ahead." I have made a contribution via "Buy me a coffee". 

Other images... I often use my own images and I try to use other images available under a Creative Commons license. Where I use images from other sources, I always link to the orginal rather than serving a copy of that image. Some images I have found on public sites like Pinterest. I accept that my use of these images is, possibly, a legal grey area. But, I do make sure that the top-level page of this site includes a feedback form where copyright holders can request any item be removed. There are images on this site that were added before I became aware of the legalities involved. It is my aim to either gain explicit permission or remove any images where there may be doubt over permission from my site over time.

However, please note that this site is, primarily, my repository of information for my own use and, as such, I view my use of images to be very similar to if I had bookmarked the image on Pinterest... i.e. they're my bookmarks but anyone can see them. For as long as this site continues to make no meaningful profit I'm comfortable with that position.

Embedded YouTube videos... "YouTube allows users to embed videos from its site by providing the html code to do so." (2). To generalise this point; I believe it's fair to assume that if a website explicitly provides the code to embed their content in your site then you have implied permission to do so.

Evidence

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Sagan standard (Carl Sagan)

What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.

The burden of proof regarding the truthfulness of a claim lies with the one who makes the claim; if this burden is not met, then the claim is unfounded, and its opponents need not argue further in order to dismiss it.Hitchens's razor (Christopher Hitchens)

quod grātīs asseritur, grātīs negātur ("What is asserted gratuitously may be denied gratuitously")

Russell's Teapot (analogy)

Bertrand Russell wrote that if he were to assert, without offering proof, that a teapot, too small to be seen by telescopes, orbits the Sun somewhere in space between the Earth and Mars, he could not expect anyone to believe him solely because his assertion could not be proven wrong. 

"Without data, you're just another person with an opinion."

W. Edwards Deming

Communication

The 7Cs...

The 7Cs (alternate)

DRIP

AIDA

Storytelling

This section is a bullet point overview of this excellent article by Max Schallwig...https://codingwithmax.com/6-steps-to-storytelling-data-scientist/
Keep in mind the importance of good data visualization
Repeat as necessary for third, fourth, etc pieces of analytics

Questions

Ask 4 questions before saying yes

The two most important questions...

Socratic Questioning

Assertiveness

  • Know the distinction between being assertive and being aggressive or arrogant.
  • Establish clear boundaries when dealing with others.
  • Politely but directly let people know your position.
  • Know what you want.
  • Avoid being timid.
  • Be willing to clearly say either yes or no and stand by your answer.
  • Avoid arrogance.
  • When opinions are in question give yourself permission to disclose yours

https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/communication/

Visualisation

Things To Avoid

If people think they will be judged, they are less liklely to share their thoughts.
Optimists are more engaging.
It easily becomes a habit.
Take responsibility.
It's just another form of lying.
Don't confuse opinions with facts.

Email Etiquette

Things to avoid...

https://www.atlassian.com/blog/teamwork/professional-email-etiquette-tips

Chat Etiquette

Summarised from: https://www.grammarly.com/blog/work-chat-etiquette/

Listening

  • Concentrate.
  • Give unequivocal attention to the speaker.
  • Don’t anticipate what the speaker means.
  • Test the message not the messenger.
  • Respect cultural difference and boundaries.
  • Develop the fine art of empathy.
  • Try not to interrupt.
  • Focus on feelings and not grammar or vocabulary.
  • Silence is the golden rule.
https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/communication/
  • Use short sentences. Ideally, sentences should have fewer than 15 words. This improves clarity. The Hemingway Editor helps achieve this.
  • Cut common phrases. E.g. replace "due to the fact" with "because."
  • Replace adjectives with data. Hard figures trump descriptors like "most" or "the majority."
  • Eliminate ambiguous words. Actively avoid words which weaken your point (e.g. "nearly" instead of an exact percentage)
  • Use the "So What?" test. Before sending a communique, re-read and ask "So, what?" Does your content provide value? Will your audience understand? Are you sharing enough context?
  • Avoid adverbs. If you spot an adverb, remove it. E.g. replace "increased massively" with "added 300 new subscribers."
  • Be objective. Objectivity injects confidence. E.g. replace "I think this change is working" with "our new approach led to a 5% increase."
  • Cut acronyms and jargon. Aim to explain to a child. E.g. do not assume that someone understands what MR means. Instead, write out "merge request."
  • Use Subject-Verb-Object sentences. Follow this path when constructing sentences: Who/what are you writing about? ⮕ What did they do? ⮕ What was acted on?

https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/effective-communication/#tips-for-better-writing

Active vs Passive Voice

Quoting

Rhyme

Bibliography & References

https://dontasktoask.com/http://xyproblem.info/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XY_problemhttps://www.nohello.com/
https://codingwithmax.com/6-steps-to-storytelling-data-scientist/https://sketchplanations.com/redundant-wordshttps://sketchplanations.com/russells-teapothttps://sketchplanations.com/quotiquettehttps://about.gitlab.com/handbook/communication/https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6945290427369459712/https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/5207355812914452/?e_t=6e109473756b42849ffcd84a8dfe69f7&news_hub_id=5329085013342346797
7cshttps://www.aelconsultinggroup.com/post/2018-02-07-7cs-of-a-good-communicationhttps://www.cambridgeenglish.org/blog/the-seven-cs-of-effective-communication/https://www.mindtools.com/a5xap8q/the-7-cs-of-communicationhttps://www.communicationtheory.org/the-7cs-of-effective-communication-explained-with-examples/
Email Etiquettehttps://www.atlassian.com/blog/teamwork/professional-email-etiquette-tips
Chat Etiquettehttps://www.linkedin.com/pulse/no-hello-policy-respect-others-time-evgeny-ignatikhttps://nohello.club/https://sbmueller.github.io/nohello/https://ercin.medium.com/no-hello-policy-say-hi-and-launch-into-your-request-27978d522c85https://www.nohello.com/?trk=article-ssr-frontend-pulse_x-social-details_comments-action_comment-texthttps://nohello.net/en/https://www.socialintents.com/blog/microsoft-teams-etiquette-20-dos-and-donts-to-follow/https://www.grammarly.com/blog/work-chat-etiquette/
Questionshttps://stackoverflow.com/help/how-to-askhttp://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.htmlhttp://www.jamesbowman.me/post/socratic-questions/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_questioninghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_methodhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harkness_table
Things To Avoidhttps://blog.codinghorror.com/happy-talk-must-die/
Visualisationhttp://stephanieevergreen.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Qualitative-Chooser-2.0.pdfhttp://kelsocartography.com/blog/?tag=dan-roam
Editinghttps://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/effective-communication/#tips-for-better-writinghttps://hemingwayapp.com/https://sketchplanations.com/omit-unnecessary-wordshttps://www.bartleby.com/141/strunk5.html
Copyright(1) http://blog.melissabradshaw.com/2013/08/images-and-copyrights-the-myth-of-internal-use(2) https://www.newmediarights.org/guide/legal/copyright_tips_posting_online_videos_youtubehttps://creativecommons.org/https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/
DRIP/AIDAhttps://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/dec/10/captain-tom-moore-hannah-ingram-moore-daughter-spa
Books vs Internethttps://guiltandindustry.medium.com/reading-this-will-change-your-brain-69c9cf9eeb14