SUCKY

(Specific, Unambiguous, Contextual, Kind, Yielding)

A toungue-in-cheek reminder to keep your communication clear and contextual, leaving no room for confusion, and keeping a focus on active listening and understanding.

How to implement

Specific:
Focus on clear and explicit detail

Unambiguous:
Eliminate confusion by being clear and focused

Contextual:
Ground your communication with relevant information

Kind:
Be empathetic and considerate of others background information

Yielding:
Allow others to speak and actively listen to understand

Example

Imagine you’re in a kickoff meeting for a cross-functional project.

It includes marketing, engineering, and design teams. Each have different levels of technical familiarity and background knowledge.

To make sure everybody understands the project and their role(s), you’d have to be Specific when detailing timelines and tasks.

You keep it Unambiguous by defining roles and expected outcomes.

You make it Contextual by tying the project to our quarterly revenue goals or broader strategies.

You practice Kind communication by acknowledging each team’s unique challenges and experience.

Finally, you stay Yielding by welcoming feedback and adjusting plans based on everyone’s input.

Note: Another use of “Yielding” is letting others talk. Lots of people “communicate” only to ensure they are heard. Yielding requires active listening to gain understanding.