Operations isn't just automations

In 2021, when the world was still figuring out new ways of life around the pandemic, a survey by Erica Dhawan,  a thought leader on workplace and innovation, and Quester involving almost 2,000 office workers revealed that over 70%employees were  experiencing some form of unclear communication from their colleagues. The average employee was wasting four hours per week on poor or confusing digital communications.

These four hours per week adds up to $188 billion wasted across the American economy every year, on average.

It’s true that when we are working from the office, we know the unwritten rules of communication. We know when to reach out to someone and when to avoid it. It’s much easy to approach people and initiate a conversation and get things cleared up.

But doing that virtually is no easy task.

However, it’s time to accept that modern work arrangement requires new digital communication rules.

I can’t tell how how many times I have tried to find the trail of a conversation that happened with a colleague (I know it happened) and I have searched for it on different WhatsApp groups, Project Management tools, in meeting summaries but have found them no where! (I think I might have sent them as a voice note somewhere?)

If that sounds relevant, if you are facing missed deadlines and ignored emails too, I have the perfect solution for you.

The solution has two parts. The first one is simple, to create guidelines around the communication tools we use.

For example,

➡️ Use Slack/WhatsApp/Instant Messenger tools for:

  • Urgent, time-sensitive communication
  • Establish ASAP response time

    ➡️ Use Emails/Project Management tools for:

    • Keeping a conversation trail
    • For sharing documents
    • Establish a 24 hours TAT

    ➡️ Use Meetings for:

    • Visual Interaction
    • When it involves a group of people
    • When you want a bi-directional communication

    The second part is the difficult one, making sure people stick to these guidelines.

    People have a habit of sliding back to their old ways so figure out a plan that works for your team to reinforce these habits.

    Erica mentioned a fun way where she and the team used #KillDuplication every time someone sends information is the wrong channel.

    I have tried creating a scoreboard in Monday.com to make a game out of it.

    But truth be told, I still struggle with this second part with many teams I work with.

    I hope you establish these guidelines around your tools and save yourself some time.

    Repost this for others ♻️ (or leave a comment 😎)