June 2, 2023 at 12:00 am
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Better Communication Through Less Messaging
June 2, 2023 at 8:10 am
As with all tools, it is the way it is used that is important.
Slack can hold video calls though I find this a bit hit and miss. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
As a transient communication system I find it irritating when people refer back to some past post as if it was a holy writ. Its as if a whole library got dumped in a skip and the expectation is that a specific quote can be found somewhere in a midden of books. Not unlike a data lake to be honest.
This is where a ChatGPT facility could be useful in finding the thread and collating and presenting the information in easily consumed chunks.
June 2, 2023 at 8:34 am
It strikes me that if someone is having meetings about meetings as mentioned in the article, the problem isn't the tools, but the lack of proper communication and planning. We use Teams where I work and sometimes there is a lot of chat, but no-one minds if you ignore a channel for a while. There's also the ability to set yourself to "Do not disturb" if you really need to concentrate.
June 2, 2023 at 12:23 pm
In general, I think the various communication tools like Teams or Slack are helpful, and much less invasive than the phone or meetings, but like every form of communication out there, it also can have its irritating and time sucking moments when you're trying to get something done. I make my worst mistakes when I'm getting constantly pinged in the middle of trying to fix something that is broken or malfunctioning.
Luther
June 2, 2023 at 3:34 pm
Interesting response by Ellii (the company Steve linked to in the article). I've never considered the possibility that a chat app, be it Slack, Microsoft Teams, WebEx, etc.) may affect the number of meetings. I doubt it has any effect in my environment. Over the course of the pandemic we tried different chatting platforms, before settling upon MS Teams. Because we weren't in person, and there are a lot of people who desperately need to have meetings, we did increase the number of meetings we had. There are some weeks where if I have a day with two meetings in it, I consider myself lucky to have so few! But I don't think that has anything to do with MS Teams. Instead, I think it is because I work in government, which lives and breathes meetings. Nothing gets decided unless it's been talked to death.
I agree with Luther. These chat apps have decreased the number of phone calls and drive-bys, for which I am immensely glad.
Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.
June 5, 2023 at 2:54 pm
I think that the company in the article must do most of their work within the basecamp platform, perhaps with many people relatively loosely connected. In small companies, this happens, because anyone can do anything, or just pick up work. So if we decide something is to be done, someone can just do it, which reduces the communication overhead.
In larger companies, we have a lot of communication overhead between groups, so I think chat tools make it easier to avoid meetings. A good thing for me.
BTW, Rod, lots of private companies want to talk things to death as well.
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