Intra-Org Communications — Channels and using them properly
As many #workfromanywhere, the flow of internal conversations might be the efficiency lever everyone isn’t talking about
A year into the COVID-induced work-from-home scenario, I was juggling my to-dos in the middle of the workday when I remembered I had to respond to a pending question from my manager from the previous day.
Remembering (incorrectly) that he had asked me 1–1, I checked our Telegram chat. Not there. Had he Whatsapp-ed it? Nope. Keyed in a bunch of keywords to check my mailbox — still no success.
I started going through our more active Telegram groups. One, Two, Five — ah, there it was. It took me two minutes to respond.
And it had taken me twenty to find it.
In my not-so-long career, I have been in organizations with diverse communication platforms — an investment bank with highly limited and regulated communication channels, a startup with the most informal setup, a large corporate finding its preferred mode of communication as much as it was finding a new identity, and now a global tech giant with a well-defined channel but added complexities with multiple time zones and what not.
Each set up had its own peculiarities and had many workers struggling to make such conversations efficient.
In my experience, the efficiency and efficacy of communication rests on,
- medium of communication
- relevance of participants
- its clarity & actionability
Each of these merits deep dives of its own. In this post, I’ll focus on the various media or channels, and their peculiarities.
Let’s begin by looking at two broad types of conversations — synchronous and asynchronous.
Synchronous conversations
F2F or phone conversations are decidedly synchronous. While the availability of the participants is a necessary condition for such conversation, their attention is expected in order to make the conversation more ‘fruitful’.
Synchronous conversations tend to be richer, with participants able to bounce off each other and shift course in response to unexpected turns. Unfortunately, the WFH environment has made F2Fs scarce and phone calls are always hard to schedule.
This has resulted in a dramatic rise in async exchanges.
Asynchronous conversations
When it comes to async conversations, email is the most commonly used medium — great for detail, record-keeping, and having more than one person in the loop, but horrible for velocity.
In fast-paced professional scenarios, email senders are often seen to get anxious about expected delays in getting responses leading them to send a mail and call immediately after to inform the receiver of the mail and the response expectation.
I hate that.
I have also been guilty of doing that.
We all have our faults.
Enter the Hybrids
There are async-sync (AS) hybrids — text messaging platforms (Slack, Teams or proprietary IM). This expectation flexibility has made these channels ubiquitous not just in modern work organizations, but also in personal exchanges (Whatsapp).
What is also ubiquitous are the people apply learned behaviors from synchronous conversation to hybrid communication.
An annoying, and frequent, instance of this is people initiating a chat with a solitary ‘Hello’ or ‘Hi’. This used to grind my gears, and not too long ago I realized I am not alone when I came across this internet movement titled #nohello — best summarized in the following graphic.
There is a surprisingly large trove of discussions and debates about this on the internet. Arguments against nudging with just a ‘hello’ are inarguable —
- It helps get a quicker response. Unless scheduled, the odds of catching the receiver at a free moment, willing to respond immediately, are pretty low. Upfront context helps them prioritize your request as soon as they are in a position to respond and fulfill it in one reply.
- It saves anxiety. No one wants to see a dangling ‘Hi’ or especially a ‘Hi, can you jump on a call?’ without any context. In the uncertain times we live in, if the person writing is your manager, it might be enough to get one’s blood pressure through the roof.
- It actually helps the sender. Early on, I have made this mistake of saying ‘Hey there!’ in an effort to engage in conversation and get a reply a few hours later only to forget what I wanted to discuss in the first place. Context helps both parties pick up the conversation at a mutually convenient time.
If needed, one can use this message to initiate a synchronous session too — “Hey! Want to get a few thoughts on the new product. Can we chat for 5 minutes right now or I am also free at 12 pm.”
This gives context, gives control to the receiver, and also ensures your schedule is covered.
The importance of intra-company communication channels cannot be overstated.
In many cases, the choice of tools and how employees use them can play a defining role in the culture, velocity, and eventual success, or otherwise of the entire company.
