The internet has changed the way we communicate in organisations, and most of us haven’t caught up yet.

Communication is the foundation of everything in your organisation: making decisions, resolving conflict, and keeping people aligned, so it’s important to be explicit with the tools and methodologies you use. You might not notice when communication is poor, but still feel it every day: delays in getting information, not trusting your co-workers, or general stress that prevents you from being productive.

What has the internet enabled?

  • Complete privacy - Fully encrypted, authenticated messages
  • One to many - Messages sent exactly to the people you want

Globe

Both of these determine who you include in the conversation, whether you’re concious of it or not.

Open communication is the key

It’s natural when you want information from someone to request it from them directly. But when you send someone a private message, you’re immediately excluding others from gaining additional context, or contributing to the discussion. You should trust your team with information, if you don’t you’re probably collaborating with the wrong people.

Taking the conversation public

If you need information from someone, don’t private message them. Instead find an appropriate channel and @mention them.

The benefits:

  • No more ping pong - if you’re asking the wrong person, the correct person can jump in and avoid uncessary round-trips
  • Global context - the context is useful for others working in similar areas
  • Searchable - for anyone that wants to see why decisions were made, or catch up

Open book

If someone private messages you, polietly ask them to @mention you in an appropriate channel and answer there. This can be awkward at the begining, but it’s important to set a culture of open communication early so it becomes automatic.

Managing channels

The key to using channels effectively is making it feel like a community

I’m not a fan of creating strict rules, but it’s good when channels can stay focused and on topic, but varied enough so everyone isn’t talking over each other.

Community

Channels can take all forms, from long running broader topics, to short time specific ones. Channels should also be actively archived (still searchable!) when inactive to reduce bloat. Ideally everybody should be able to create channels.

A permanent #general channel is good for bigger announcements, as well as a #random channel in case people can’t decide what channel to use.

Should communication be 100% open?

No. Private messages should still be used for sensitive information or feedback.

Conclusion

Every message we send in our organisation is a decision about who we include in the conversation. The conscious decision to include as many people as possible by using public channels is the best way we can use open communication to make us all more productive… and happier :)