5 Workplace Communication Skills I Learned at Google

Updated 2026/10/16

Six months in, I felt like I was starting over

When I first joined a multinational, I thought communication was mainly about “expressing yourself clearly.” If both sides understood each other’s ideas, the work would move forward. Six months later I realized the hard part was something else: “getting listeners at different levels and from different backgrounds to truly understand and agree with your message.”

Real communication skill means influencing decisions and driving action, beyond just presenting information.

Communication has never been one-way “persuasion.” It works in both directions to “make action happen.” Once I saw it this way, I stopped simply “reporting” progress or results in meetings. I now think ahead about the other person’s needs and position and adjust how I communicate.

You’re communicating well when your message is understood and also moves the other person to act.

During my time at Google, I’ve learned 5 key communication skills. Whatever team you’re on, whatever your role and whatever you’re responsible for, they’ll help your message land with your audience.

Leave room for a real conversation, so you’re not just talking to yourself

Effective communication is about interaction, not one-way information transfer. Through that interaction you reach “mutual understanding” and make sure both sides are thinking in the same direction. Only then will your ideas actually land.

Big meetings always have a Q&A segment, but in a 15-minute quick call, an internal team discussion, or even a client-facing Pitch, I sometimes forget this step myself.

“Leaving room” like this shows what two-way communication is worth. It makes sure nothing is misunderstood, and it can spark new thinking and insights. Information flows best through dialogue, not one-sided statements. When you give the other person a chance to speak, you learn what they think, and their angle may give you ideas you’d never considered.

Before the discussion ends, also confirm that you’re on the same page. That way everyone has the key points, and the conversation goes deeper and has more impact.

A real situation from my client Pitches

If you don’t leave room for both sides to respond, or ask questions to dig into what the other person understands and thinks, it easily turns into “talking to yourself.” Or you discover an information gap halfway through the project, which wastes effort and means spending extra time to sort things out again.

For example, when I pitch products to clients, I often spend a lot of time preparing data and slides to make sure every detail is covered. But when I found that data alone wasn’t enough to win clients over, I started asking questions during the presentation so clients would share their needs and concerns more openly. That lets me tailor the presentation, draws clients into the discussion, and deepens their understanding and buy-in.

First ask yourself: “What might they not understand?”

The first rule of communication: always assume your audience “doesn’t know” your background

The first step in communicating well is making sure your message can be understood, instead of assuming listeners share your background knowledge. As an Account Manager, I often meet with different internal and external colleagues and partners. So I can’t assume everyone knows the jargon or the details of a particular project.

In a cross-functional meeting, for instance, if you keep throwing out jargon like “CTR,” “CVR,” “ROAS,” “ARPPU” and “payback multiple,” people may not even catch your main point. I’ve found that successful presentations almost always make sure the listeners furthest from the topic (zero-context) can follow the key points too. Instead of saying “Our CVR is low,” say: “Our ad conversion rate is 20% below the market average, which means there’s a lot of room to improve, so we suggest trying three approaches next: A, B and C.”

📌 Key points: how to keep your communication easy to understand

• Break down technical terms and use plain language. Skip the jargon and explain the core idea directly.
• Use analogies (or stories) to make abstract ideas concrete. In the example above, bringing in the market average makes the message more concrete.
• Always ask yourself first: would a complete outsider understand this?

Not every meeting is worth having. Many discussions “could have been an email”

Distilling information is central to communicating efficiently.

Once I started working, I found time management mattered a lot, especially when it came to scheduling meetings. Often I realize a meeting doesn’t need to happen at all, and a simple email could convey what’s needed and achieve the same goal.

Sending an effective email takes more than just “writing it down,” though. I usually think ahead: what does the reader care about most? How can I get the main point across clearly and concisely, without long text slowing things down?

Here’s a strategy I use a lot to make emails more efficient: “The Inverted Pyramid Method”

1. State the conclusion directly: Start with “we should do this” instead of laying out the backstory
2. Add key data or reasoning: “This strategy can raise ROI by 5%, so it’s worth trying”
3. End with a call to action: Tell the reader exactly what to do, e.g., seek your approval on this
4. Provide background (Optional): e.g., attached is the xyz data related to the proposal

Avoiding information overload is what keeps the reader focused on your core message. An email is a communication tool, not a dump of information. The point of writing this way is to cut the noise and focus on what matters, so the reader gets the key point without having to think!

📌 Key points: how to make your emails efficient

• In emails and presentations, put the “action item” first and the details after (for example, “Please reply by Friday on whether you approve…” rather than “In view of xxx, we found that…”).
• Each email should carry a single core message (One Email, One Purpose). Don’t cram in too much at once
• In emails and Presentations, try to state the key point within 3-5 lines
• Before writing an email, ask yourself: “If the reader only reads the subject line and the first paragraph, will they get the point?”

Understand what the other person cares about and frame your message around it

Communicating at work isn’t like chatting with friends. Workplace communication has to be efficient and effective. Everyone is paid to get their own work done, and if you take up someone’s time talking about something that has nothing to do with them, they have to put their own work on hold to listen to you.

Good communication goes well beyond discussing details or sharing progress. Everyone has their own responsibilities, priorities and goals, so before you communicate, you need to know what matters most to them!

Example 1: presenting results to senior leadership (your boss’s boss)

Your boss’s boss probably cares most about company revenue and market share. So in the email or update mentioned above, center it on the “revenue growth” and “market share gains” you achieved. Then add how you did it and which Takeaways or Learnings other colleagues could use.

If your message to your boss’s boss is all about how hard you worked and the back-and-forth details, they won’t know what the information means for them.

In short, first learn each person’s KPIs and what they care about, then tailor your message and keep it lean, so what you share actually helps them.

Example 2: proposing a collaboration to a colleague on another team

When you want a colleague or partner from another team to work with you on a Case Study or project, start by understanding what they focus on, and communicate in the way they value most.

Say you need to persuade a colleague from another department to join your project, and you want to raise your project’s visibility and recognition inside the company. You need to pay attention to their goals and needs.

• Understand their pain points: Colleagues in product may care most about getting the product to market fast, delivering features or iterating on the product. If your project can provide data to help them promote the product internally, get more people into experiments and gather more data for iteration, focus on that and explain how working together helps them reach that goal.
• Speak to their interests or the KPIs they’re measured on: If they’re in data analytics, they may care about data availability, report accuracy and depth of data. In that case, stress how working together can produce more useful data insights, improve their team’s effectiveness and efficiency, and raise their visibility inside the company.

📌 Key points: concrete communication strategies

• Tell a story: Whoever your audience is, you can show the value of working together through a story. For example, describe a past success so they can see how this kind of collaboration clearly helped other teams.
• Back your proposal with data and projections: Numbers are a common and effective way to persuade. Whether it’s expected revenue, efficiency gains or problems solved, data shows clearly what the collaboration is worth.
• Propose specific next steps: Besides stressing the value of working together, lay out the concrete next steps. That helps them understand where the project stands and estimate how much time and effort working with you will take. It also shows you have a grip on the details and take ownership of results.

Driving action > just reporting well

Successful communication gets the other person to understand, and more importantly, it gets them to act.

Besides asking “Is my report complete?”, ask yourself: “What will they do after hearing this?”

When reporting, many people give lots of background to show they have a grip on the problem, and they leave out the most important part: what they want the other person to do. Instead of just stating the data, stress the real impact it has and say clearly how to move forward.

For example, don’t “explain” that you’ve noticed personality quizzes are trending on social media and therefore want to run a campaign around that trend. Go straight to the “potential results” this approach could deliver and the support you need from them.

For example: “We need your decision / input / help to move this project forward.”

Don’t assume listeners will reach the same conclusion you did on their own. Your communication only creates value when you say clearly “what you want them to do”.

Final thoughts: good communication takes more than “being clear”

When I started my career, I thought the key to communication was “expressing yourself clearly”: if your language was precise and your logic sound, people would understand. After working with more great colleagues, though, I found that real communication skill means influencing decisions and driving action, beyond just presenting information.

To sum up, communicating well means passing on information and also steering people toward action. By understanding what others need, adjusting how you express yourself and pushing for action and results, you make workplace communication efficient and successful. At work, the goal is for people to understand you and, more importantly, to be willing to move, pushing things toward the goal you share.