𝘈 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘣𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘮𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬, 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘢 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘢 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯. I’ve sat in many meetings where someone says something that makes the whole room lean in. A sharp way of framing the problem. A smart fix for something everyone had been circling for weeks. Heads nod. Someone says, “Yes, exactly.” And

Last month, I wrote about slowing down to get clarity — on who does what, by when, and what "done" actually looks like. This one is in the same spirit, but about a different kind of clarity: making sure you and the person you're talking to are actually looking at the same thing. Earlier in my career, I sat through a lot of calls where two people would spend twenty minutes describing something to each other — a report, a slide, a data table, an email — and only realize at the