Finding Balance: How to Communicate Better and Work Smarter
Fostering Focus and Collaboration with Flexible Communication and Fewer Interruptions
If you work at any kind of company, it has its way of working. Their cultures are usually plagued by inefficient communication.
If you almost have no meetings at all, it leads to isolation and miscommunication among colleagues.
Or you have meeting after meeting, everyone on the same page, but nothing gets done-there is no time left.
There is no silver bullet to any of those extremes because communication is the basis of the success of any company. However, there are a couple of ways how to find a balance between them.
Most people require space for deep work and we should optimize the work environment for that.
It is important to say: Every team is different and for every team works something else. There is no reason to change workflow, if you are able to bring in value which is needed.
Asynchronous Communication
Use Slack, Teams…
But use it proactively. Be an open book for everyone.
If you have issues, successes, questions, doubts or anything. Post it into the group chat, board or directly to that person in interest.
Do not expect people around you to magically appear and read your mind. Some programmers hide behind the curtain that they are not supposed to announce anything and mind their introverted world.
**Wrong.**If I hit some milestone or trouble, I automatically post my status into a group chat. It saves your time and others, because they will read it, when they have time and take action if it is needed.
Moreover, it creates less friction for the future, people are aware of it and you spend less time saying what you have done and can solve imminent problems and progress further.
The main goal is that you do not wait proactively for responses, but you proactively inform everyone about current events.
It sounds like small thing, but if everyone is doing it - it aggregates into huge time saving.
No Recurrent Meetings
Having a meeting just because the meeting is in the calendar is total nonsense and there is a way to avoid them. There are two questions, which might pop into your head:
- How do I track everyone’s work?
- How do we discuss next steps?
Tracking work
A simple Kanban table is more than capable of tracking all the work.
Nothing new huh?
But here is how to make it more powerful:
- Everything is a task. Changing one color? It is a task and it is becoming trackable.
- You can link code repositories to tickets in the most popular implementations - you see that the developer did some work.
- If nothing happens - no work has been done. If the developer does not push code / write any update - it is considered no development has been done.
Discussing next steps
A manager is responsible for laying out the next steps in the future and gathering all the information to get it done.
- Create a task to introduce some features and lay down foundations what is desired, how it should work and what are the requirements (context and example are the most important!).
- Invite everyone and request feedback on the item.
- It is reasonable to set a due date.
- Create multiple threads of communication and aggregate all the inputs required to achieve the task.
- At a due date - make the final decision and inform everyone.
The benefit of tracking everything in threads and tasks is that anyone can see progress and inputs from anyone at their desired time. No one is pressured to be at the meeting and watch other people fighting about minor details.
The success of this approach depends on proactive approach of everyone. Write update, if anything happens - see the previous point about asynchronous communication.
If you need a meeting, create one and make it intentional
Everyone uses a calendar in some sort. If you need urgently to talk about something and see a hole in their calendar, create a meeting with relevant people.
Please, do not schedule meeting on lunch. Everyone deserves time to eat.
Create meeting at the end of working hours. People can focus on deep work and end it with call.
It sounds counterintuitive that we want fewer meetings. However, if you make meetings intentional, you avoid the need for routine meetings.
For example, if you are making a big decision on the task, it is reasonable to make a decision together with everyone onboard.
If you did all the previous steps laid down above, the refinement meeting about such tasks will become only formality and will end quickly. There is no space for bickering around because all the bickering was done asynchronously.
Note for Managers
There are two types of work.
Managerial work and deep work. (Even if the developer does managerial work, it is not exclusive.)
Managerial work is based on solving imminent tasks, issues and questions. It is based on active context switching from one topic to another. Context can switch even every ten minutes and you still can achieve progress.
Deep work requires focus on solving complex problems, which cannot be done in a matter of minutes. It requires a person to be cut off from the outer world and solve a single problem. It can take hours to resolve it and make some progress.
The character of the work depends on the context and the main point of the problem.
Do not expect specialists to elaborate on your problems as fast as you do things. They need uninterrupted time to do their work - they specialize in solving complex problems.
No Meeting Days
Some days should be a nogo for meetings. There should be days dedicated to working on your tasks with no questions asked around.
Colleagues can focus on their tasks with no anxiety about looking at the clock when the next meeting is about to start.
Moreover, it promotes autonomy and reduces context switching. If some colleague encounters an issue, they can ping someone and they will sort it out on their own. They don’t have to wait daily and ask there or take whole team hostage.
If you combine no meeting day with the use of all the asynchronous communication, you can achieve more and bring in actual value to the product.
Condense meetings into 1-2 days per week. If you really need one, place it on the end of the workday, so when you are finished there, you can call it a day.
Respect the chronotype of people, if possible
Chronotype is the property of every person at which point in time they desire to sleep. It has been found that chronotype is influenced by genes too. So, if you have been a night owl, early riser or day person … it is partially inherited. Here are a couple of articles.
With chronotype, it is possible to deviate the ideal time to do the deep work. Night owls should do the work during the night or early rises in the morning.
Unfortunate part of current culture is that everyone is expected to work at the same time.
It is impossible to achieve it, but it is reasonable to be companionate about it. If you start to work at 5 a.m., do not expect to receive the responses at that time. Also, if you work during the night, do not expect it either.
Asynchronous means that you expect results at another point in time and not immediately.
We can reduce dependency on it, if we communicate asynchronously and if the meeting day comes, we can do the compromise and meet somewhere in the middle.
Be proactive
Do not expect anyone to change their behaviour, if you do not speak up. If you do not say anything, everything will stay on that old track.
If you want people to keep you posted about current events, start yourself and invite people to do the same.
If you want to change the process, come up with a plan for how to do it. Do not brag about the current one.
If you want to have no meeting days, propose it to your team.
If you want to work different hours, ask for it. Plan how you would like to manage it, so you have a full proposal.
Anything can be done, but do not default to do nothing. Plan it, propose it, prepare to take responsibility and see the results.
Meet in person and build trust
Everything is about people.
If you trust people with who you work with, it makes all the work much more smoother.
People make mistakes, but if you cover each other back, then there is minimal space for error.
Go for team-building, go to the office and talk.
If someone thinks they do not need to meet in person and a camera is enough, it is a big misconception.
Proximity will empower you. It is hard to hate up close.
Trust is the ultimate productivity tool, which you have at your disposal. If there is no trust, the project will eventually crumble, because people will leave or skeletons will be discovered in the closet.
Conclusion
None of the proposals can be implemented fully at some companies. No solution fits all.
However, you can start transforming it into something you desire step by step.
Pick one tip, which you like and start implementing that one with the team. If there is a will, there is a way.
It is important that the team as a whole feels comfortable with the setup. If you are happy, don’t change anything.
Thanks for reading and do not forget to follow!
