Update Beat the Drum

Author: dguo

src/pages/blog/beat-the-drum.md

@@ -2,25 +2,26 @@
 layout: ../../layouts/BlogPostLayout.astro
 categories:
   - communication
-date: "2024-08-24"
+date: "2024-11-07"
 unlisted: true
 title: Beat the Drum
 ---
 
-My former COO gave me a piece of advice when I became a manager. He said that
-leaders have to deliver the same message again and again and again
-to make sure it actually gets through to everyone in the organization.
-Sometimes, it's also necessary to simplify the message and lose some nuance for
-it to actually sink in. The advice made sense to me at the time, but it became
-more concrete to me as I tried to apply it and as I noticed when leaders above
-me failed to do it. I brought it up to my former COO recently, and he put it in
-a fantastically pithy way by saying "yep, you have to beat the drum."
-
-In [old military situations,
-drums](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_drums) were used as a form of
-communication. They kept armies aligned on messages as simple as "advance" and
-"retreat." Similary, organizations need their leaders to continuously
-communicate to keep people aligned.
+[My former COO](https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-burton-1a420015/) gave me a
+piece of advice when I became a manager. He said that leaders have to deliver
+the same message again and again and again to make sure it actually gets through
+to everyone in the organization. Sometimes, it's also necessary to simplify the
+message and lose some nuance for it to actually sink in. The advice made sense
+to me at the time, but it became more concrete to me as I tried to apply it and
+as I noticed when leaders above me failed to do it. I brought it up to my former
+COO recently, and he put it in a fantastically pithy way by saying "yep, you
+have to beat the drum."
+
+In the past, some militaries [used
+drums](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_drums) as a form of communication.
+The drums kept armies aligned on messages as simple as "advance" and "retreat."
+Similary, organizations need their leaders to continuously communicate to keep
+people in sync.
 
 The larger the organization, the more important this idea is. In a startup with
 a few people, it's easy for everyone to stay on the same page. In a massive
@@ -29,6 +30,8 @@ is the default outcome. It takes active work to get everyone to even hear a
 particular message, more work to get them to remember it, and even more work to
 get them to act on it.
 
+## Failure Modes
+
 This may seem wrong. If the CEO wants to send a message to everyone, they just
 need to send a company-wide email or mention it in an all-hands meeting, right?
 Nope, because there are so many ways for such a simple thing to fail.
@@ -53,18 +56,23 @@ disappears.
 Another person disagreed with the message, ignored it, and nobody cared. This
 person eventually learned to just disregard everything the CEO says.
 
-Another person doesn't have all the industry knowledge that the CEO does and
-doesn't really understand what the CEO said as a result.
+Another person doesn't have all the context that the CEO does and doesn't really
+understand what the CEO said as a result.
 
 There are so many failure modes, even though the message is coming from the CEO,
-the person who should have the easiest time getting a message across. Even the
-CEO needs to repeat a message multiple times and figure out how to word it so
-that people truly get it.
+the person who should have the easiest time getting a message across. But even
+the CEO needs to repeat a message multiple times and figure out how to word it
+so that people truly get it.
+
+## Empathy
 
 I think one reason it's actually hard for leaders to do this (beyond the fact
 that it takes work) is that it's an exercise in empathy. When you come up with a
 message, it's easy to remember it and understand it because it's your own
-creation. Ego is also a factor. Leaders have a tendency to believe that what
+creation. But that doesn't mean it will be easy for someone else to digest it
+and retain it.
+
+Ego is also a factor. Leaders have a tendency to believe that what
 they say is particularly important. But you have to put yourself in the mindset
 of the people you're trying to communicate to. If you spend weeks coming up with
 detailed goals and plans for your team, of course you're going to know them in