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Good communication is the key to team cohesion, effective workflow, creativity and productivity. When there is a breakdown in communication, it can have a negative effect on the overall team health, individual and team performance and the customer experience. Teams need to adapt to ensure communication lines are open, exchanges are clear and actions are transparent. Communications is a two-way street and everyone has to participate to be successful. Here are the basic steps that need to be taken.

Design A Communications Plan Meetings Know Your People Prepare For Pitfalls Share Success

Ironically, a good communications plan for any group starts with good communication within the group. And when working with a distributed team, it’s more vital than ever. Involve the team/division/department in the development of your plan. Find out what good communications look like for your work flow, team cohesion and goals.

Team Leaders

  • Discover what works for your team at each level of communication. Some things that work in smaller working groups or divisions may not translate into larger departments. A system that works for organizational business may not work for creative teams. Be flexible and understand that a multi-faceted communications plan may be necessary.
  • Sample different tools for team communications – Jabber, Slack, Outlook, Engage, email, phone calls, virtual meetings, texts – find out what works best with each team member and incorporate those into your plan. Remember, it’s not set in stone – be adaptable if the team dynamic changes.
  • Tailor your communications plan to those different personalities but choose one overall communications tool for the entire group.
  • Choose the most effective platform for communicating with the public and outside stakeholders: e-blasts, newsletters, town halls, WebEx and Zoom meetings and webinars. Make sure the communication tools you select work with industry standards (Box vs. Dropbox, Google Docs, Trello vs. Basecamp vs Microsoft Planner) while maintaining the level of security and privacy needed for your group.
  • Once the plan is determined, make sure you make your communication expectations clear to the team. This includes ensuring that everyone understands the organizational structure of your group.

Team Members

  • Be honest and open with your leaders about how you prefer to interact. Everyone has a preference for one-on-one communication. If you get overwhelmed by the volume of email you receive, choose phone calls. If you are an introvert, you may prefer email or text over phone calls.
  • Reach out. Communicating with your team leaders must not be restricted to when they contact you. If you have questions, ideas or progress reports, don’t wait to be asked about them. Initiate the communication.
  • Maintain a schedule and make sure your leaders know where to find it. Distributed teams can’t just glance down the hall to see if someone is in. Outlook is an excellent tool for this – be sure to keep it up. Just make sure your managers know when you are and are not available.

Team Leaders

  • Determine how much communication is the right amount. Do not be afraid to discover this through trial-and-error. You want everyone on the team to feel heard, to be included. Leave ego and titles at the door and be open to each employee’s input. Be transparent in your communications. Do not assume that information discussed in a smaller working group has been transmitted to the larger division/department.
  • Beware of meeting creep. In a distributed team, all the casual one-on-one interactions that took place in the office are often replaced by meeting discussion. Allot time for feedback and questions, but you don’t want meeting to replace doing, resulting in limiting productivity.
  • Define roles and expectations for participants. Encourage respect. Establish virtual meeting guidelines (such as 100 percent attention and engagement and zero percent multitasking, requiring camera use, etc.), explain private chats to encourage participation from introverts by providing them a safe environment of remaining anonymous. Keep in mind that distributed teams may not always be in a location where camera use is possible.
  • Allow a limited time (15 minutes) at the beginning of a meeting to engage in “small talk,” what’s new or have a team member pick a topic to start a conversation. Rotate the facilitator at each meeting. Follow an agenda, building in round robin time after a few topics are discussed. Focus on feedback, making sure you consider all feedback and not just certain comments.
  • Avoid overscheduling teleconferences both within teams and interdepartmentally to avoid burnout. Fine tune the number of general meetings that are necessary. Scheduling and canceling meetings frequently could result in participants feeling less valued. Be mindful of work day hours when scheduling meetings. If you have a meeting expected to take three hours, consider scheduling three one-hour meetings on three consecutive days, instead of a one three-hour meeting one day.
  • Schedule regular in-person meetings, alternating locations and settings. They do not need to always be held where the largest contingent of workers or outside stakeholders (when applicable) are located. Consider allowing staff to choose meeting location.
  • Periodically set aside a meeting for team business, as opposed to agency business. Continue traditions that nurture team cohesion, such as celebrating birthdays, work anniversaries, accomplishments.

Team Members

  • Don’t just show up – participate. It’s been proven that multitasking is a myth. Stay engaged in the meeting; handle your email afterwards. If you wouldn’t do it in person, don’t do it in a virtual meeting. Your colleagues deserve your full attention, and you deserve theirs.
  • Don’t hang back. Make your input clear and concise. If you have an idea to improve something, or an alternate meeting location to consider, speak up. If you’re uncomfortable opening your microphone, use chat.

Team Leaders

  • Determine who will be likely to participate in virtual group settings and who will not. Discover how they wish to be appreciated for their work and apply that. Praise in public.
  • Make communications personal. In addition to team video conferences, make time for direct one-on-one “check-in” phone calls, texts and emails – tailoring the communication method to the team member’s preference – that incorporate both work and personal business. This allows less extroverted teammates to clarify their assignments and contribute suggestions without being expected to speak up in front of everyone.
  • Continue the personal interactions like birthday parties, lunch-and-learns, exercise challenges, virtual greeting cards everyone signs, etc. If you’ve had none, create some.

Team Members

  • Let your leaders and colleagues know you. Share as much as you are comfortable with, both in how you prefer to communicate and in some of who you are. If you don’t tell people, communications can go awry. For example, simple shyness can be interpreted as standoffish or having nothing to say.
  • Check in with each other. If you have a break in your day, see if a colleague has a minute to chat. This is not a time to talk business. Ask how things are going at home, talk about a shared interest, offer a sounding board or shoulder. Vary your contacts among the staff, including supervisors and other leaders. It’s good for morale and team cohesion.

Team Leaders

  • Praise in public, correct in private applies in both the real office and the virtual world.
  • Don’t anticipate or borrow trouble. Avoid micromanaging or “hovering.” Establish productivity expectations and trust your employees to accomplish their assignments until a problem arises.

Team Leaders And Team Members

  • Learn to speak the same language. Make it simple. People needing tech support often cannot efficiently verbalize their needs. Seek clarity – it’s not dumbing down. It’s learning to work with people who have different knowledge bases.
  • Remember that email, text, messages left on work boards such as Trello and Basecamp have no tone and can easily cause misunderstandings. Be thoughtful in your feedback and if in conflict, take it to individual communication or conference with the parties involved. When disagreements arise, be specific.
  • Create a departmental – or even statewide – brag board where teams can share communications tips that have been successful for them. Add best practices, things learned, flaws discovered.
  • Do – learn – do. There is no one-size-fits-all communications plan to cover every working group, team, division and department Discover what works best for you and don’t be afraid to discard things that don’t.