Digital shame: it’s time for communication protocols
You know when your digital communications make you wince…
A friend sent me a Whatsapp this week saying she was going for a big lockdown promotion. I read it at the park… just as the children decided to take their clothes off and have a stick fight in a tree.
The post-park dinner was late and chaotic, we’re still catching up on Grayson’s Art Club and the Ickabog… by which time I had totally forgotten about her promotion, and so responded, sheepishly, three days later.
The theme of digital missteps is a big one this week, with a report in the FT today about it fuelling a paranoia, in the way that face-to-face communications don't. But we have to adapt: someone told me that it would take five hours to fill their Canary Wharf Office if they stuck to current social distancing. Five Hours!
Just another reminder that digital comms are the only option for now because pre-COVID business life was so perfectly designed to spread a virus: Jammed trains and buses, centrally controlled lifts that don’t leave until they’re full, open-plan offices, no opening windows, hot desking and flex work spaces, business travel, conferences… *exhale*
Yet however much we know digital is safer, the psychological risks are real.
Why we need a system
From longer and longer working days, to Zoom Doom with endless exhausting video calls droning on and pressure to respond to all messages in frenzied seconds; mistrust and growing tensions are growing. It’s easy to assume bad intent rather than good.
This makes NOW a good time to step back and think about how we create our communication protocols. Not just for Zoom or email or Slack, but for everything:
When should we use a direct a call?
How long should video calls be?
What is the optimal number of participants?
How should our teams build and maintain trust?
How can we keep people included and share some joy—without wasting everyone’s time?
And avoid “every darn manager from every level above me calling once a week to ask meaningfully if I’m *OK* when I just want to get my job done”.
A few thoughts:
Cut it out.
Communication Consultant, Andy Bounds, gives this top tip: if you save 12 minutes per day, you save an hour a week and week a year. Just limit a daily ‘one hour meeting’ to 45 minutes.
30 mins or bust.
Webinars at this length are more likely to get my attendance and complete concentration than longer ones. A good trick for presenters: offer to stay on at the end for those who want to ask additional questions.
Hello Hollywood!
Increasingly, leaders are making short, informal videos to share a lot of practical information across their networks, without forcing everyone to Zoom in.
Take it analogue.
Don’t forget that we are allowed to meet now, albeit at a distance.
Someone told me this week that they were struggling to connect with a new client. So she invited them to a walking meeting around the park with a take-away coffee. They are now, she jokes, best friends.
Tell us when you want it.
Say when you need a response by: “Contract draft: sending at 5pm”, “Presentation: thoughts before tomorrow” or try the shorthand of some consultancies and add time to headings 1d (1 day) or 2h (2 hours).
So next week, don’t even try to book me for an hour, though I will be taking walking meetings. And yes, I do have a LOT of thoughts on that promotion, I’m ringing you right now.
– Christine x
