week 1

How can we reduce costly communication breakdowns—without dumbing things down or losing nuance?

In this foundational session, you’ll learn a systems-based model for understanding technical communication breakdowns. Built on a modernized version of the Shannon-Weaver model, this framework maps how messages move across teams—and where they get distorted by emotional noise, misaligned concepts, language gaps, and relational tension.

We’ll explore how empathy functions as a communication protocol—not just a personal trait—and how small breakdowns in clarity can cascade into major technical debt, team tension, or delivery delays. This session sets the stage for the series by giving your team a shared lens and common vocabulary for diagnosing communication friction before it turns into failure.

week 2

How can we communicate without losing meaning—or patience?

Even when teams speak the same language, they’re not always aligned in meaning. In this session, we combine the best of domain-aware language use and conceptual modeling. You’ll learn how to identify when misalignment stems from jargon, assumptions, or mental models—and how to bridge the gap without diluting the technical rigor.

Through real-world examples (think: stakeholder updates, architectural debates, and “but I thought you meant…” moments), you’ll practice building shared understanding across departments, disciplines, and roles.

week 3

How can we understand the forces that lead to to communication breakdowns?

In complex systems, communication doesn’t fail all at once—it unravels slowly, often invisibly. Context gets lost. Messages get diluted. Misunderstandings compound. This session introduces entropy as a neutral, systemic force that explains why clarity erodes over time—and how to respond.

You’ll learn how to identify when and where entropy is showing up in your team’s communication (not just what’s being said, but how it’s being passed along). Together, we’ll explore when to lean into entropy—like when it’s time to challenge outdated norms—and when to counterbalance it by introducing structure, documentation, or shared protocols.

By the end, your team will see communication breakdowns not as personal failures, but as system signals—and know how to design around them.

week 4

How can we build shared understanding when we approach problems from different angles?

Every person on your team brings a unique mix of experience, communication preferences, values, power dynamics, and processing styles. These differences aren’t flaws—they’re features of a diverse and capable organization. But when they go unacknowledged, they can introduce friction into even the most well-intended conversations.

This session explores how to recognize and account for these natural variations. You’ll learn how to communicate more effectively across roles, functions, and personalities by building empathy into your systems—not just your interpersonal relationships. The goal isn’t perfect harmony—it’s mutual clarity that respects complexity.

week 5

How can we make communication more reliable—without micromanaging every message?

In high-growth or high-complexity environments, informal communication breaks down fast. People interpret messages differently, expectations get missed, and leaders spend too much time clarifying what should’ve been clear from the start.

This session focuses on communication protocols—agreed-upon patterns and expectations that make interactions more predictable, scalable, and fair. You’ll learn how to design lightweight protocols that reduce ambiguity without adding bureaucracy. Examples include when to escalate, how decisions are communicated, who reviews what, and how feedback is given and received.

By the end of the session, your team will walk away with a set of customized communication protocols that support trust, reduce decision latency, and improve coordination across roles and responsibilities.

week 6

How can we design communication that works for real people in real complexity

This session brings together everything we’ve covered—signal clarity, shared language and concepts, relational dynamics, entropy, and communication protocols—and helps your team apply it to your actual workflows.

We’ll walk through real scenarios from your organization: handoffs, code reviews, roadmap debates, stakeholder updates, retrospectives, and more. Together, we’ll map where communication tends to break down and identify practical, scalable ways to improve signal quality across your systems.

This isn’t about changing how individuals talk—it’s about designing systems that support clarity, trust, and deep work across natural variation. You’ll leave with a working model of Technical Empathy tailored to your team’s needs, and a plan to integrate it into the way you work every day.

When technical teams struggle to collaborate, it’s rarely about personality—it’s about design.
This program gives your team a practical framework for building communication systems that support clarity, trust, and momentum across natural differences in thinking, expertise, and experience.

Let’s move beyond soft skills and surface fixes and build your empathy infrastructure.