Try a little redundancy

So, did you watch the World Series? There was a classic miscommunication between the manager of the Cardinals, Tony LaRussa, and his bullpen coach, Derek Lilliquist, in game 5. LaRussa asked the bullpen coach to warm up two pitchers, a right handed pitcher and a left hander, and only one was warmed up. The end result was the probable loss of a game.

What could have been done differently? If the conversation had included a confirmation of the instructions back to LaRussa by the bullpen coach, both men would have been able to agree the same message was sent and received. Try incorporating a little redundancy in your communications, and see if it does not help. Here's an article with the four steps to include for clearer communication: tell, summarize, paraphrase, repeat.