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WHEN AND HOW: Team Communication

When should you use Team Communication and how do you use it with best practices.

WHEN:

Internal communication with team members including:

Announcements

Brainstorming

Notifications from other tools (ie. New Sales)

Direct Messaging with Team Members

HOW:

Goal:

Channels - See and respond to all relevant messages daily and reduce unnecessary 'noise.'

Direct Messages - Respond in a timely manner without disturbing your focus time for key work.

Our Preferred Tool:

slack-logo

Principles:

  • Private (not Public) Channels

    Too many public channels creates unnecessary noise in the tool. Each channel should have a clear purpose/description.

  • Channels Need to Have a Naming Convention

    Usually with a prefix like "01-Sales-New Customers"

  • Turn off Email and Browser Notifications/Sounds

    They create distractions.

  • Check 3x Per Day

    FOMO is real.

  • Use the Mobile App

    While on the go or to screen messages.

  • Use Integrations

    Create tasks in Asana directly from Slack. Send notifications into Slack from other software.

  • Use Channels instead of Direct Messages

    For visibility and to make information easy searchable. Use Direct Messages for time sensitive, private, or personal messaging. Use Direct Messaging instead of text messaging. Text Messaging should be for personal only.

Use Key Features of Slack to Save You Time:

  • @Mention and @Channel

    These notifications stand out.

  • Threads

    Keeps conversations organized.

  • Reactions/Emojis

    Used to acknowledge reading a message, in place of low value messages like, 'Thanks' / 'Ok' and for voting polls.

  • Mark Unread

    Remember to come back to a message.

  • Bookmarks, Topics, Pins

    Keep things prominently positioned in a channel.

  • Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Saved Items

  • Update Your Status

    The whole team will know if you are away or in a meeting.

  • Sidebar

    Setup to only show unread, starred channels, create your own sections.

  • Reminders

    Will prompt you to read something or take an action.

  • GIF's

    Good for company culture.

  • Use Search to Find Messages

Frequently Asked Questions

Why can't I just do Team Communication via email?

Primarily because email should be single channel to external communication only.

Also, email stacks up by most recent while Slack can organize conversations by topic.

Email is also missing key features like threads, emoji's, and Channels vs. Direct Messages.

Overall, Team Communication takes less time and is more organized in Slack vs email.

Why cant I just do Team Communication by Text, Whatsapp, or Facebook Messenger?

Although better than using email, these tools are generally missing:

  • Channels - group messages by topic
  • Integrations - being able to connect to other tools to work between them, send messages back and forth, etc.
  • Slack also has a feature called 'Slack Connect' which allows you to share channels with people outside your company vs. using email

Also, Text/Whatsapp/Facebook Messenger should be for personal use only - not business.

We tried Slack and it failed miserably so how will this be any different?

You most likely did not set it up properly, train your team, and coach them over the first 3 months of the deployment.

In the first 3 months, it's critical to coach your team to achieve:

  • daily usage of the tool - then...
  • daily usage of the tool with Best Practices

Just telling everyone to use Slack and not creating guardrails or coaching is a good way for the tool to die a slow death.

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