Technology is supposed to make your work life easier. Establishing communication protocols and practices will help you work smarter, not harder. But it’s not a solo effort. To improve office communication and collaboration you need management’s support. Below are areas where you and your team can get started to minimize digital overload.
Establish Communication Guidelines
Every communication and collaboration tool must have a unique purpose. That’s the first rule of communication practices to work smarter, not harder. Defining purpose helps establish guidelines for where to appropriately “house” your communications to prevent silos and redundancies.
To start, create a list of use cases and match each case to the best app for that purpose. You may even reduce the number of apps in use. Here are some use cases to get you started:
- Casual banter and chit chat
- Information: FYI, announcement, and news—no discussion required
- Individual discussions
- Sensitive topic
- Status update
- Initial task assignment and instructions
- Questions and replies
- Feedback
- Group discussions
- Project
- Brainstorm
- Challenge/problem solving
- Planning
- Consensus-building and making a case
- Sharing documents
By going through each use case together your team can decide which tool is most appropriate and adjust workflows. For example, using a project management tool like Asana or Smartsheet, eliminates the need for status updates via email or phone/video call.
Embrace Asynchronous Communication and Collaboration
Real-time communication strengthens relationships, especially when working remotely, but it can be counterproductive too. A key principle of workplace etiquette is respect for others’ time. It’s unfair to expect an instant reply from colleagues who are equally busy.
A second practice to work smarter not harder is to make asynchronous communication the norm. It reduces distractions, improves focus, and increases productivity.
Establish acceptable response times based on tools (e.g. email vs Slack) and even adjust for different groups (e.g. colleagues vs volunteers). A new protocol takes time to implement and for others to adjust their expectations. But it helps cut down chaos and prioritize efforts because you’ll know if that 7pm email is actually urgent or if it can wait until morning.
Manage Your Notifications
No one should be expected to be available all the time. Snooze notifications after 5pm to unplug. Everyone should set their hours of availability. You need time to recharge and let your brain process the events and challenges of the day, and not respond to “just this one quick email.”
Silence notifications when you need to concentrate on deep work. Communicate your needs via your status (e.g. heads down until 3pm to finish client report) and check your colleague’s status before contacting them to show them the same courtesy. Use your tools to help you focus and be more efficient.
Adopt an integrated, omnichannel approach instead of multiple pings from several tools. See if you can sync or integrate any of the tools you’re using. For example, link your calendar, Asana, Teams, and Zoom in Slack. By doing this, you get the majority of your notifications in Slack and can still collaborate on documents via Teams.
Adopt a Strategic Approach to Communication and Collaboration Tools
Adopting a few communication practices allows your team to work smarter not harder. Figuring out each tool’s purpose and establishing response times allows the technology you invested in to do some of the work for you. — Use your project management tools like Asana and Smartsheet to eliminate the need for project status check-ins and follow-up emails. These tools make tasks and projects transparent, increase accountability, and embrace asynchronous communication.
If you have the urgent need to explain something “in person,” shoot a video and send it over instead. The recipient can watch it at their convenience without you interrupting their work. Instead of wordsmithing a report by sending emails or messages back and forth, collaborate in an online document.
Let each piece of technology find its purpose in collaboration, not competition, so you achieve your organization’s goals without additional complexity and stress. If you’re unsure how to simplify your communication channels or need help establishing a hierarchy of communication responses, contact us, we can help.