Are we over-communicating?

Pondering Productivity versus Communication…

By Sriram Sitaraman

In this day and age, with the myriad communication channels and tools that are there it leads me to wonder, are we still communicating?

Let’s look at some of these…

• Work: Emails, Slack, Hangouts, Zoom, Meet, SMS, LinkedIn, Whatsapp, etc.
• Personal: Whatsapp, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, etc. Leads me to wonder/ponder below…
• Are we truly communicating?
• Aren’t there many channels of communication, and are they really helping us avoid communication gaps and help us be more productive?
• Are we interested in pushing/sending messages as we get to some topic of interest, and expect a response sometime in the future? Or Immediately?
• How does one balance their need to work on a deliverable undistracted versus responding to a constant incoming deluge of messages/information?
• Does one respond to customer queries first or internal ones which we may see as a higher priority?
• When is a good time to respond, so as to balance an individual’s priorities versus others? End of the day at the latest? What if it is not possible?
• What if one individual’s priorities are different from the other’s? Still, there is a basic obligation to respond, but when, so as to ensure an organization’s collective priorities are taken into account
• What about the information deluge on the Social media channels that we are swamped with? Do they register in our minds, or do we just “swipe/sweep” it off our memory?
• Do we miss critical information or messages in this deluge?
• How to handle the preferences of each individual in terms of communication channels?
• What to make of mixing personal and work channels? Keeping track of action items or questions related to work on Whatsapp.

Now that we have gone over the communication challenges in this digital era, we need to explore ways to balance deliverables, responses, and make sense of the tons of information flowing in.

Can we implement any Productivity hacks? A few are below…

• Communicate level of urgency when messaging or reaching out
• Don’t send emails or slack messages during off hours if it’s not urgent — rather draft and schedule them
• Let us not assume that a person is ignoring our priorities — rather connect with the person and provide more context
• Set mode of communication for each type of interaction at the team level — status updates, urgent queries, reports, etc. could each have their own mode; Arrive at best medium for each
• Making one’s work visible, so others recognize when to disturb and when not to

You may be aware of the Thomas-Kilman Conflict Model. It is a popular conflict resolution model. This model is based on two dimensions of conflict management: assertiveness and empathy.

Based on these two dimensions, there are five conflict resolution strategies: Competing, Avoiding, Accommodating, Collaborating and Compromising.

While Communication at a professional level is certainly not related to conflict, you will be surprised how this could be seamlessly adapted for resolving communication challenges.

More than these hacks, let us resolve to be “Connecting”, instead of Communicating. The secret to effective Communication is Connection. I recently got enlightened while reading an article that gave a good perspective on Connection and how it enables effective communication. What is this? Well, we need to “Connect” with individuals better. If one can connect with people, we can communicate with them. The connection goes beyond our words. Connection multiplies the effectiveness of Communication and leverages influence.

Since it’s late for New Year resolutions, I resolve to start Connecting from the new Financial Year :-)

Communications are transactional, but Connections are lasting.