Ramping up Team Communication for Optimal Success

In a perfect world, when the number of urgent projects increases, the available time in a day we can dedicate to them would also increase. However, time keeps moving at the same speed, regardless of our workload. As professionals, it’s our job to learn how to manage this time efficiently without losing traction or focus.

A manager’s best asset for their day-to-day: a team. A trustworthy team allows a manager, in a way, to be in multiple places at once. In order for this to be the case, managers must possess the ability to effectively communicate what is expected and required for a given project to succeed, while remaining available to the team members throughout the process. Effectively managing a team also requires a heavy emphasis on team communication.

Here are a few of the tools we use to emphasize team communication and the benefits we’ve found with each:

Team Meetings

We have a small team of five in our department. Each morning, we hold a team meeting where new tasks are assigned and previously assigned tasks are re-emphasized. Upcoming deadlines are also shared so the team knows what is coming down the pipeline. This helps team members communicate with one another throughout their day as they will have context on the project their peers are working on.

Slack (or other organized messengers):

From my experience, teams that utilize efficient forms of communication with one another tend to be more resourceful when problem-solving. Our team uses Slack to keep all of our messages in one place, organized by topic. If we are planning the details of a trade show workshop, we will use the dedicated Trade Show channel to share ideas, improvements, deadlines, and files. We have a channel setup to keep track of all our communication on a particular topic throughout the year. Utilizing a messenger like this encourages team members to problem-solve and communicate with one another in the individual channels. I can stay in-the-loop by overseeing all of our communication involved in a project without having to ask for time-consuming reports from my team.

The Magical Cloud of File-Sharing (Google Drive):

Keeping files up-to-date is vital for an accurate project output. We’ve learned the hard way that, when multiple people are collaborating on a project, it is easy to lose track of the updated document. To mitigate this issue, we do most of our teamwork through Google Drive. Google Drive allows multiple users to edit one document at once and auto-saves the document often. For those operating on a budget, the fact that Drive is free doesn’t hurt either.

Encourage an Open-Door Policy (mostly):

As a manager, I’ve come to the conclusion that I have to work in spurts to get something done. This isn’t due to my inability to focus as much as it is a team’s need for their manager. People have questions and it’s the manager’s responsibility to guide them whenever needed. Granted, there are things a manager can do to mitigate how frequent interruptions occur throughout the day. For example, if my team has questions that do not need my immediate attention, they will send me one message with a handful of questions which I can answer as soon as I get a free moment. All urgent questions and issues are encouraged to be brought up as soon as possible.

Organizations come in all different shapes and sizes. Therefore, what works for us may not work for you and your company. The key is to remain open to trying new strategies that could improve efficiency when things get chaotic. Regardless of what strategy you wind up implementing, emphasizing communication will help alleviate some naturally occurring deficiencies and keep your team on the path to successfully completing a project without losing their sanity.