One of the challenges to clear communication in the course of business is realizing when it hasn't happened. When we communicate poorly we sometimes realize it when it happens but we underestimate, choose to ignore or pass the responsibility for it to someone else. This behavior is common and difficult to remedy only because it is habitual and often accepted as a matter of course or as a personality flaw or quirk. If an when we commit to changing our patterns here we can, again, if we are committed, by creating new habits.

More difficult is the situation where we don't see where or even how a miscommunication occurs and we are blind-sided by the consequences when things finally break down, sometimes weeks later. Each party generally feels righteous because each party has invariably done something right during that time, but if the breakdown occurred then clearly no one did everything right.

The best way I find for dealing with miscommunications that we cannot see is by avoiding the behaviors that create them.

Assume nothing. Even the most obvious things to you aren't always obvious in a given situation from a given perspective. People do forget, people do change their minds, and people do get lazy from time to time.

Share responsibility for jobs that you may not get credit for and share responsibility and credit for your tasks. In the end it is about teamwork and ownership of a teams success, even when that team consists only of a client and a subcontractor. You don't need to add the work of someone else to your own to make sure they have what they need to get their job done.

Double check your self, and others. Factor in the time to check things over into your planning and schedule. Asking others to check your work encourages you to be more thorough (we are always more attentive when we know some one will be looking), and it makes others more comfortable asking you to check their work. Otherwise you may engender an atmosphere of distrust by always looking as though you are second guessing others and confident only in yourself.

Waste no time when you think something might be wrong or about to. Even if you end up looking silly or over cautious, you will look inept or worse if you see something coming but say nothing.

Be patient with the people who avoid assumptions, try to share in your responsibilities, double check themselves and ask you to do the same for them.

Lastly, plan to work hard, to work as a team, and to invest a portion of everyone's time making sure no time, money or effort is wasted because two people are sitting by the phone waiting for the other to call.