TL;DR: 

• Wanted to see my daughter’s choir sing at Radio City Music Hall
• Teams that don’t communicate properly will never be able to succeed
• It’s better to risk over-communicating than under-communicating
• But no one likes an over-sharer

Returning from a weekend in New York City as part of my kids’ Christmas gift, I had flashbacks to the previous year, when my 12-year-old daughter’s middle school choir was set to perform during the Rockettes Radio City Christmas Spectacular.

How cool, I naively thought — I’m going to see my daughter sing at the world-famous Radio City Music Hall!

It started bumpy, with a text from my daughter that several kids were “yacking” on the bus from suburban Philadelphia to New York City. Oh great, perfect time for a stomach bug infestation.

But no worries, the bugs were really just jitters mixed with motion sickness. The show would go on!

Too bad I would miss it. With a little help from poor communication.

Radio City Music Hall is an attractive fortress. We shuffled excitedly through security, found our seats amongst an auditorium seemingly designed as a futuristic cave dwelling. When during the show would the kids perform? At the beginning? During an intermission? That question held our curiosity.

About 30 minutes until showtime. My youngest daughter and I fled the cave to descend into the depths of the fortress, deep where cell service can’t reach, to empty our bladders, grab snacks, and scope the merch in the downstairs waiting area.

At some point while deciding which Radio City hoodie the oldest daughter would prefer to commemorate her time performing at Radio City, my wife apparently tried calling. And again. And one more time for good measure. I imagine if the poor AT&T service had been able to penetrate the fortress’s walls, the ringtone would’ve wailed frantically. But I still had 14 minutes until showtime, and wouldn’t receive the pleading voicemails until later.

It was only when we returned to the space cave ready to have our years made that I learned something was amiss. My wife’s beautiful face twisted into a concoction of pride and pity and pissedoffedness. “You missed it,” she said.

“What?”

“It’s over. They already went on. You just missed it.”

How???

Unbeknownst to us or seemingly any of the parents who took off work to catch a train to New York to watch their kids perform, the choir was scheduled to go on 20 minutes before the Rockettes started. It would’ve been nice to know that ahead of time, so I wouldn’t have milled around the already-popcorn-strewn basement during the only performance that actually mattered to me.

Can you guess how aggravatedly I watched the ensuing Rockettes pretend to be toy soldiers collapsing into each other? Santa’s virtual sleigh ride through Times Square brought no joy. In fact, it may have been the single worst experience I’ve ever had watching talented performs cancan live.

All because of poor communication.

Err on the Side of Over-Communication

According to Google’s AI Overview, “poor communication is widely considered the leading cause of disgruntled employees.” A website I’ve never heard of called pumble.com claims: “Workplace communication statistics show that 86% of employees and executives cite the lack of effective collaboration and communication as the main causes of workplace failures.”

Communication is the heartbeat of everything. Any great friendship, marriage, sports team, or business organization relies on effective communication. In this context, I mean the actual presence of communication. Keeping people out of the dark about what you’re thinking or how you’re feeling or what you’re expecting.

Rarely are problems caused by over-communicating. Please note: over-communicating is very different from over-sharing. There are some things coworkers should never know (to type more would risk my own over-sharing). But over-communicating — well, how many times has someone complain that you provided too much helpful information?

Consider These Scenarios:

Has your boss ever asked to meet with you without explaining why?

If you’re anything like me, you immediately assumed you were in trouble, and probably about to be fired. Wouldn’t it be so much better if instead of “Can you come to my office,” your boss said, “Can we discuss Person A’s request about such and such?” How much more difficult is it to title a meeting “Discussion about Client Z” instead of “Joe and Jane Talk”?

Have you ever been part of a merger or acquisition where leadership neglected to share much information before and during?

My guess is the rumor mill instantly whirled to life with harbingers of mass layoffs. Plans-in-progress don’t need to be shared in detail, but every little bit of information — even just confirmation that you are working on a plan — helps fend off the worst fears.

Has the head of your kid’s extracurricular activity ever ruined your day by neglecting to share extremely crucial intel?

All it would’ve taken was a message in the Remind app stating, “Hey everyone, heads up that the kids are performing 20 minutes before the show is set to begin.” What’s the worst that would’ve happened? Those who already knew would’ve thought “I already knew that” and closed the message. But anyone who didn’t already know would’ve actually gotten to see their kid shine on stage.

Don’t worry, my tale of woe has a happy ending. My daughter did sing at Radio City Music Hall, after all. I don’t need to have seen it live to be able to appreciate how brightly she shone on that big ol’e stage.

But it sure would’ve been nice.

By the way, the digital marketing agency I work for, Arc Intermedia, is exceptional at communication and transparency, always letting clients know what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, and how well it does (or doesn’t) work. Find out how we’ve managed to stay in business for more than 15 years.