Poor communication does not imply everyone involved is incompetent idiots. It's unfortunate, and important to address, but if you quit any project every time there is inadequate communication, you'll never get anything done.
Assumptions are inevitable. They get harder to question the longer they go unquestioned. Newcomers to a group can see them better.
Perhaps cutting people some slack and helping them work better by asking basic questions is a skill we all need to learn.
If someone asks a simple question, it’s great - because most likely executives will have the exact same question, but depending on your relationship with them, it could go a few ways (or more): 1) they just think you don’t get it because they assume the answer to the basic question and it’s not the assumption you’re operating off of 2) they call you on it during the presentation and make it look like you have failed to explain the fundamentals 3) they wait until after the presentation to ask the question, and others in the room aren’t really sure about it either, because you just assumed everyone knew.
I think it’s OK to ask dumb questions twice. If you don’t get it by the third time (or fail to remember), then we might need to step back and revisit fundamentals, or your mental model might need adjustment so that the information makes sense in context.
I work with good people, and when they screw up, I cut them some slack.
Everyone sometimes screws up. Some more than others. Some distractingly so, and some so often that it's not worth continuing the relationship. But the mere fact that someone at some point screws up does not make them irredeemable. So, yes, I think cutting people slack is important.
This is totally orthogonal to being qualified for a job, or being good, or any other attributes people have that puts them out of their depth. If you work with a bunch of unqualified poseurs, then sure, slack isn't what's missing, and you should quit. But if you find yourself in that situation very often, I'd be asking different questions...
And nobody can know and do every damn thing that's why we have teams and an org. Sometimes you're in the room with experts from different specialties that don't understand each other. Sometimes you're in a team with very disparate domain expertise... Not getting anywhere in meetings is not always the sign of a dysfunctional org or stupid colleagues. It's everyday, everywhere, with everyone.
And. What if it's your customer in the room? Are you firing them for being 'stupid'?
The superclever types that thing their colleagues are stupid are often the most dangerous, as they'll just 'go it alone' and then leave when they fuck up and suddenly everyone is stupid and not grateful.
Assumptions are inevitable. They get harder to question the longer they go unquestioned. Newcomers to a group can see them better.
Perhaps cutting people some slack and helping them work better by asking basic questions is a skill we all need to learn.