Edward Murphy is the aerospace engineer from the 1940s and 1950s who is credited with the adage, “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” Now referred to as “Murphy’s Law,” the message captures a truth that is as old as human history. Every SME should know and respect the universal application of Murphy's Law.

To emphasize that Murphy’s Law applies to failings in communication as much as it does to any other discipline, Osmo Wiio, a Finnish academic and author, amended Murphy’s Law with a sarcastic set of communication axioms called Wiio’s laws. He stated, “Communication usually fails, except by accident.” And, more important, “If a message can be interpreted in several ways, it will be interpreted in a manner that maximizes the damage.”

Many SMEs acknowledge Murphy but ignore Wiio. They know that physical products fail, software contains bugs, and people make mistakes. Because of these shortcomings, they plan accordingly. But the same SMEs assume their own utterances are clear and their email is always convincing. Few SMEs consider their own communication failings. Great SMEs constantly ask themselves if their explanations are understood and how they can correct misunderstandings. They expect their communications to fail and patiently prepare for repetition, clarification, examples, and illustrations. They recognize that people rarely understand new concepts on the first explanation, so they prepare multiple ones.

If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong, and that includes everything you say and everything you write. Plan on it.