HOW TO IMPROVE WORKPLACE COMMUNICATION

Your mode of communication is just as important as the message. Rethinking how you communicate at work can lead fo vastly beffer results.

- JILL DUFFY

How we communicate and the method we choose can make all the difference to the outcome. Workers have long been frustrated when the mode of communication is wrong for the message, because it's ineffective, reduces productivity, or wastes people's time.

WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM ALL-REMOTE ORGANIZATIONS?

Remote organizations must necessarily think harder about workplace communication than in-person organizations, because they don't have the same options as in-person teams. Remote organizations, which tend to be younger, also don't typically have the same cultural baggage that older organizations do.

Older organizations are more likely to be set in their ways. A classic example is a company whose culture gives undue significance to in-person meetings. People believe that the in-person meeting is the best way to, for example, kick offa project or regularly check in with a team merely because that’s the only way they’ve ever done things. Eventually, it creates an expectation that in-person meetings play a crucial role in the process.

By contrast, remote organizations have to rethink how business gets done. Their leaders are less likely to assume that a meeting has magical powers, and they’re more likely to be open to trying new ways of communicating that end up being better for the message.

So what can we learn from remote-work companies to make all workplace communication better?

START BY ASKING, ‘WHAT IS THE PURPOSE?’

Before you book your next meeting or draft your next email, stop and ask yourself what is the purpose. What do you need to accomplish? Are you:

• Delivering straightforward information

• Collecting information

• Soliciting ideas or opinions

• Solving a problem