Antione Goret, Head of Sales and Marketing at Crisp, takes a deep dive into enhancing organizational efficiency by improving internal and external communications. He believes that, above all, collaboration is the key.
The online world is the glue that binds us all together in a time when we’re mostly unable to share physical spaces. Try to imagine how differently the world would have responded to the COVID-19 outbreak without the internet in robust operation. However hard things are now, it’s important to acknowledge that they could have been so much worse.
After all, businesses of many varieties have been able to endure by pivoting to online operation. They’d have had to shut down otherwise and might never have reopened. With the results of decades of computer technology development at their disposal, professionals swiftly became accustomed to working from home, soon making it the new standard.
But the undeniable fact that the internet provides so many possibilities only makes it more frustrating that we haven’t mastered online communications. Both professionally and personally, we still struggle to use the rich tools at our disposal, mainly while working remotely.
In this post, we’re going to look at some tips for boosting productivity by improving your internal and external communications. Above all else, collaboration is the key. Here’s how to use it:
Getting Everyone to Use the Same Communication Channels
When employees are in an office, they share the simplest communication channel of all: speech. But when you have people scattered across countries or even continents, that option is gone. All exchanges are digital — which would be fine if there weren’t so many digital channels with so many siloed messages.
If one person likes using Slack but another prefers Asana, they might end up missing each other’s messages and updates. This is why you need everyone to be using the same channels (you’ll likely need more than one, but you should have as few as possible — and whenever you have several similar optionsOpens a new window , pick one and run with it). Make it abundantly clear that messages relevant to work must be submitted where all others can see them.
You can also centralize your external communications (support requests, for instance) by routing everything through a universal inboxOpens a new window . The appeal of a shared inbox is that vital replies won’t get delayed due to absences: if the person responsible is ill or simply not working on a given day, someone else can notice the lingering task and deal with it.
Learn More:Â In the Age of WFA, Collaboration Tools Need a New Purpose
Scheduling Regular Cross-Team Progress Meetings
I mentioned messages being siloed earlier, but the problem tends to be much broader. Huge operational elements can go unmentioned due to divisions between teams. Someone on team A might not need to know what team B is up to, but that doesn’t mean that there would be no advantages to telling them about it.
It might turn out that they have relevant skills and could contribute to the other team’s project on a part-time basis, helping the company get better results. Accordingly, it’s a good idea to schedule regular meetings (most likely virtual via ZoomOpens a new window ) that bring teams together and task them with explaining what they’re doing and why. Shared comprehension is vital.
Encourage Workers to Share Information and Advice
There’s a difference between logging things and making an effort to share them. I could write this entire piece, upload it to a generic WordPress site, and set it live. It would be online and available so you could find it, but why would you have to look for it? You wouldn’t even be aware of its existence unless I told you about it.
It would help if you got into the habit of encouraging people to share important information proactively. When one of your employees happens upon a helpful resource, they should share it with everyone. When they find a better way to handle a regular task, they can explain their new method.
It would be best if you also encouraged them to share advice on professional or personal matters. Life is really challenging at the moment, and it’s normal to feel down sometimes, but just a few kind words from a colleagueOpens a new window can make a significant difference — and the better someone feels, the more capable they’ll be of handling their workload.
Learn More: 5 Ways Fewer Online Meetings Lead to Better Collaboration
Invite Detailed Feedback From Clients and Partners
Lastly, returning to the topic of external communications, it’s important to remember that clients and partners aren’t competitors to argue with or inconveniences to be avoided (at least, they shouldn’t be). Walking on eggshells when dealing with them might feel like the safe way to proceed, but it’s also limiting — it limits what you can achieve, and it limits their involvement.
Instead, try consulting your clients and partners when you communicate with them. Are you covering the points they truly care about? Are you overly or insufficiently formal? Maybe they’d love for you to loosen up somewhat and have some fun. You just won’t know until you ask — and if you can find a better way to communicate with them and be there when they need you, it’s certain to boost the discussions’ productive output.
Now more than ever before, close collaboration is absolutely essential in business. If you let colleagues and clients drift apart, the result will be chaos, confusion, and calamity. Use the tips we’ve set out here to improve your communication.Â
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