Eithne Sweeney: Trim the mainsail! How speaking a common language helps organisations sustain their course
May 2019
Eithne (pronounced Eth-na) is a director and co-founder of Wires Uncrossed, a business dedicated to helping technical teams connect. The idea for the business began when she sailed a small yacht from New Zealand back to Ireland with her husband. It took great communication and teamwork between her CTO husband Myles and herself, but during the journey she found that they were speaking different languages! To succeed, they needed to learn to speak a common language.
Eithne draws on this experience and her natural gift for storytelling, to explain the common communication issues faced by technical teams, and how technical communicators can help to overcome them and sustain their profession.
Our future heavily relies on technical experts but there is a disconnect between the technical experts and the teams that work with them. Half the crew is calling to tighten or trim the sail and the other half is working to take the sail down and put a new one up.
The technical people become despondent, get burned out and leave. The others continue to miss their goals. The good news is: it’s easily fixed.
It’s Eithne’s passionate belief that building stronger connections is the key to a sustainable organisational culture, which can help increase staff engagement and motivation, and reduce staff turnover.
Join Eithne as she shows us how to navigate the world of technical communication, using simple, effective ways for every member of your crew to speak the same common language.
About Eithne Sweeney
Originally from Ireland, Eithne spent over five years working for large multinationals in China, where she helped technical teams overcome the barriers of language, culture and distance to build strong connections. Moving to New Zealand, she spent the next 10 years working alongside technical specialists in some of our largest companies, equipping them with the skills and structures to foster effective communication.
Eithne holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Business and Languages. Having circumnavigated the globe, she remains a keen sailor, and enjoys getting out on the water with her husband Myles and their young family.