What’s the best way to communicate in office?

Psst…Slack killer inside

Earlier (like way, way earlier), we humans hardly used to talk. Our ancestors, the apes, used to communicate through visual gestures and movements, sounds and smells. Vocabulary was limited to the point of being non-existent. Human speech evolved some 100,000 years ago. And ever since, we can’t seem to stop.

The 21st century witnessed the rise of many online communication tools. It started with personal chat or IMs as they were known — people would look down on you if you weren’t on Yahoo Messenger. At the other end of the spectrum, for business purposes, email as a conversation medium was already well established with AOL, Yahoo and Hotmail running the show (before Gmail launched in 2004 and changed the game). Somewhere down the line, someone had the idea of combining the two use-cases — personal and business — and “enterprise communication” or “work chat” tools were born. Think Yammer or Slack.

Which begs the question — What’s the best way to communicate in office?

My answer: Offline

I’ve always felt that the ‘chat’ culture has made us lazy. We have begun to use ‘SMS lingo’ in the wrong places — be it while assigning tasks or responding to a work query internally, we have gotten into a habit of trying to use as few words as possible. Time saved typing can probably be utilised to actually work, right? Or spend around the water-cooler?

Our intentions may be noble, but more often than not, this leads to communication gaps and people not being on the same page. Seriously, how many times have you heard someone say, “Oh, I thought you meant something else”. In an effort to squeeze extra productivity out of an already-busy work day, we miss out on communicating important points.

The result? Multiple back-and-forths that end up derailing the productivity train. Ultimately, you spend 30 minutes on something that should not have taken more than 10.

So the next time something comes up at work, make that extra ounce of effort to walk up to your colleague or get into a quick meeting to clarify any doubts. 9 times out of 10, in-person conversation always trumps digital communication. Leave no room for misinterpretation. Put it in another way or rephrase, if required. And watch how productivity skyrockets.

P.S: I’m neither pro-Slack nor pro-Email. It’s just that sometimes both these channels fail in communicating exactly what you have in mind. And for the record, I use Newton at work. You should give it a try, too.