Good Team Communication is essential for a healthy team. Most of us rely heavily on email to communicate with team members. The problem with using email is that we use email for so many different things that team communication can get lost in the mix. Critical work emails get mixed up with Macy’s coupons and frequent flyer plan updates. Email is simply not the best way to communicate as a team. I have found a better way. It’s called Slack.
Over the past year, I have shifted all team communication away from email. This decision has cut my incoming email in half and dramatically improved communication among my team.
Slack is an app specifically designed for communication among your team or staff. It has been heralded as the email slayer. Slack launched two years ago and already boasts 1.25 million daily active users at hundreds of companies. Comcast, Expedia, Blue Bottle Coffee, Intuit, Zappos, and even NASA use slack.
We have been using Slack for years now, and love it.
Here are a Few Reasons that Slack works so well
- All of your team communication is in one place. (not mixed up with other kinds of email)
- All of your messages are searchable. Everything in Slack—messages, notifications, files, and all—is automatically indexed and archived so that you can have it at your fingertips whenever you want. Slack also indexes the content of every file so you can search within PDFs, Word documents, and Google docs.
- You can create different channels (like groups) for various teams.
- You can have direct message conversations that are like a running dialogue. (All searchable and in one place)
- You can Drag and Drop, Share, and upload files.
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Getting started with Slack
- To try slack, I recommend downloading the app to your computer, phone, and tablet. I have found that the app is much better than using the web interface.
- Upload a picture. It only takes a second and makes the whole interface much more personal.
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Keys to Slack Success
- Communicate to your team a no email policy. I also recommend no texting except in the case of an emergency. Everyone has to buy in for slack to be most effective.
Stick to Slack. No texting. No email.
- Keep Slack open on your desktop when you are working.
- Use do not disturb mode when you’re not working.
- I use the free version of Slack. There are paid versions, but I have not found compelling reasons to pay at this point.
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Ready to cut your email in half and improve your team communication? Commit to slack and watch it happen.
