One of my mom's very best friends also happens to be my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Umlant. They got to know one another because my mom's a teacher too.

Their friendship is full of these special stories and inside jokes. There's one story that really cracks both of them up and they love to tell it together.

Years ago, my mom was telling Mrs. Umlan

how much she loved Oprah. Mrs. Umlan said she did too. They were both a bit surprised. The two of

them went back and forth talking about Oprah, no way, opera, or was it Oprah, until it dawned on

them that they were having two entirely different conversations, in part because of their

accents. My mom is from Ghana and Togo, and Mrs. Umlan is from Germany. And while my mom was talking about

the beloved daytime television personality, Mrs. Umlant was waxing poetic about her love for Don Giovanni

and La Boem. The fact that they could be so close and still have this kind of fundamental misunderstanding

really tickled them.

No matter how connected you feel to another person, chances are sometimes you really have

no idea what they're saying.

I'm Madupa Akanola.

This is Ted Business, a podcast from TED.

Our speaker today is psychologist Tessa West, and she's here to tell us plainly that basic

miscommunication can interrupt even the most dedicated teams.

Now, it's not always the kind of literal language-based miscommunication my mom and

Mrs. Umlat had about Oprah and opera. Sometimes it's an issue with messaging or with different goals

between different teams. Sometimes it's about existing bias or a lack of information transparency.

So how do we make sure everyone's on the same page?

Then after the talk,

how often do you ask the people you work with,

...