Clarity Impairment

Strong communication is an important ingredient for effective teams, and continuous improvement relies heavily upon teamwork.

Some people, though, suffer from Clarity Impairment, a Lean affliction in which they are unable to provide information without ambiguity.

This might fall into the realm of just not making sense with what they say, but there are also many cases in which the information is intentionally vague. Instructions like “Make it happen,” or feedback like “I took care of it” fall into this category. They sound like an actual instruction or update, but actually do not impart any real information.

As you might infer, there are unintentional cases of Clarity Impairment, and intentional ones. When a person falls into the first category, it is generally a simple matter of asking for the person to restate what they said or do a quick briefback. It can cause problems when someone acts upon unclear information, but even then, that is normally discovered rather quickly. The positive point here is that there is a willingness to rectify the situation.

With intentional Clarity Impairment, though, the person is trying to sidestep the possibility of blame. By giving vague instructions, a leader can defer taking a stand on something until after a problem occurs and then assign fault to someone else.

As an example, suppose there is an issue with a questionable part being used in a product. If an employee brings the issue up to a manager, who then says, “Just take care of it,” the onus falls on the worker to make a decision on his or her own. They might decide to use the part anyway, rework the item and incur cost and delays, or scrap the parts and shut down the line. Whatever the employee chooses, the manager can wait until a bad outcome happens and then blame the employee. It is a shady way to lead.

This form of clarity impairment severely erodes trust and makes employees operate in fear of unfair consequences. It makes them avoid taking any risk, which means that they won’t take much initiative.

If you are an employee who gets this form of vague instruction, and you are worried about your boss trying to pass responsibility onto you, make sure you ask for clarity. If it is the first time, or happens very infrequently, or you have a good working relationship with your boss, verbal clarification is probably enough.

But if you have trust issues with your boss, protect yourself. Put together a plan and email it to your boss to get a record of what the boss is asking. Most bosses won’t use Clarity Impairment as a tool when they have to go on record. This is a last resort, though, and you should question your situation if you are having to resort to tactics like this.

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