The average American spends 2080 hours at work each year. Most office employees spend a median of 28 hours every week writing emails, sort out information and collaborating internally. Over half of the average workweek is spent communicating.
During that timeframe, how much of that time is spent on communication? More importantly, how much of it is spent on effective communication? What tools do you have to foster better communication?
Whether large or small, public or private, effective communication is a core component to any successful business. This Harvard Business Review article covers five large organizations across industries from energy and mobile phones to cruise ships and airlines. One of the largest factors, termed silent killer, in each of these stories’ epic failures was a lapse in communication.
Some of the most popular tools we hear about are:
- Social intranet software
- Private group messaging and chat tools
- Cases / issue tracking / ticketing software
- Discussion software
Our office recently jumped on the #Slack bandwagon. I have to admit, I was a little dubious about adding another password to my list of account logins. But in less than a week, our team was hooked on our newest tool.
A virtual clearinghouse, meeting place and home for all of our communications, Slack is a real-time messaging, archiving and search tool for modern teams.
HOW HAS IT WORKED?
In the past, when we wanted to communicate (everything from a major sales win or kudos on client success or who wanted Jimmy John’s for lunch) an email would be sent out to the team. This often resulted in dozens of high fives, responses and enthusiastic comments back through email. Since the inception of slack we have:
- Streamlined communication by delivering the right information to the right team member on the right Slack channel.
- Increased engagement and enthusiasm from team members including the fun /giphy plug-in that allows for sharing via photo/image communication.
- Significantly decreased the number of internal emails sent by encouraging open communication through Slack.
As you work to constantly improve your business communication do some research to determine what tools can help you to provide the platform for success.
Questions, thoughts, ideas? Email ann@convergeconsulting.org
