effective team communication - the 6 step improvement process

Effective Team Communication- The 6 Step Improvement Process

Aim of presentation

1. What are the main problems with team communication?

2. How can I help my team communicate more effectively?

Messaging/chat E-mail

Digital team communication

Team communication has traditionally been managedby email and chat.

But lately, teams also use project management tools and all kind of messaging apps to talk with each other.

Which is whycommunication has evolved…

…into a mess

Research study on internal communication

Spring 2015• 10 in-depth interviews with organizations in private and

public sector

Conclusion• Internal communication happens completely ad hoc• There is no strategy for internal communication• There is no improvement processes for internal

communication

Is your organization any better?

Briteback’s study spring 2015 showed that internal communication happens completely ad hoc.

The problems…

a. Team members constantly need to switch attentionbetween different tasks and incoming messages

b. Not being able to focus on one task at a time induces stress and the feeling of not being efficient

c. Information is distributed unorganized, reaching the wrong people at the wrongtime, through the wrong communicationchannel

Time spent on task switchingResearch studies with office workers in the USA show:• Employees check emails 74 – 96 times a day• Task switching time per check takes 64 seconds

Jackson, et al, 2001 & Mark, et al, 2014

17% of a normal working day!This is

Time spent on task switching

Communication-related stressUS research study

2 conditions were studied:• Condition 1: Maximum 3 emails checks per day• Condition 2: Unlimited number of email checks

• 124 participants, 2 weeks in each condition• Daily measurments of stress levels

ResultsThere were significantly higher stress levels in the unlimited condition

Kushlev & Dunn, 2015

More email checks = more stress

The cost of inefficient communicationLet’s calculate on a figurative example with 40 employees!

Assumptions• Time wasted on task switching for email:

17% per working day

• Salary costs: $7k / employee / month

• Salary costs for time spent task switching:$7k * 0.17 * 40 * 12 = $570k per year

How much does your organization pay its employees for task switching?

The solution!A communication strategy

“A communication strategy is an established agreement on how to

communicate”

Definition:

Factors in a communication strategy

• Content• Tonality• Medium• Timing• Expectations• Confirmations• Reminders• Status

Should betied to rolesin the teamor company

Strategy: Content

• Is my message clear?• Did I express myself concisely?• Could my message be interpreted in

different ways?

• Is my message really about several things?

You are what you write

The wall of text in an email or chat message is difficult to understand by the receiver. Keep it brief and structure the text, so your point comes across.

Content: Example

Timing

Messages will be interpreted differently depending on when they are sent!

• When to send?• When to respond?

Timing: Example

A communication strategy must be adapted to the team

6 step communication strategy

6 steps toward effective team communication1. Bring it up in the team; create interest and

curiosity; educate

1. Bring it up in the team; create interest and curiosity; educate

2. Run a communication workshop in the team; document the results

6 steps toward effective team communication



3. Formulate the results as a communication strategy




3. Formulate the results as a communication strategy

4. Make sure to anchor the strategy with top-level management



curiosity; educate2. Run a communication workshop in the

team; document the results3. Formulate the results as a communication

strategy4. Make sure to anchor the strategy with top-

level management5. Implement tools for following the

strategy


curiosity; educate2. Run a communication workshop in the

team; document the results3. Formulate the results as a communication

strategy4. Make sure to anchor the strategy with top-

level management5. Implement tools for following the

strategy6. Establish an improvement process;

adjust the strategy as needed

blog.briteback.com/89-tricks-for-email-etiquette

Learn more!Email etiquette is the principles of behavior that one should use for email management. But why should I care? Email etiquette is important for you, the individual, but also for your team or your company at large.

Download the ultimate guide to email etiquette on Briteback’s official blog:

Download

Communication strategy tools in Briteback

briteback.com

Briteback is the only team messaging app on the market, where chat and video play nice with email.

The app enables companies to implement a communicationstrategy and follow-up on their internal communication.

The app comes with a range of smart features allowing you to stay within the recommended maximum email

length or double checking your recipients, …and much more!

Communication strategy tools in Briteback

briteback.com

Related research (1/3)• Barley, S.R., Meyerson, D.E., and Grodal, S.

E-mail as a Source and Symbol of Stress. Organization Science 22(4), pp. 887-906, 2011.

• Bradley, A., Brumby, D.P., Cox, A.L., and Bird, J. How to Manage Your Inbox: Is a Once a Day Strategy Best? Proceedings of the 27th International BCS Human Computer Interaction Conference, 2013.

• Dabbish, L.A., and Kraut, R.E. Email Overload at Work: An Analysis of Factors Associated with Email Strain. Proceedings of CSCW'06, Banff, Canada, pp. 431-440, 2006.

• Dabbish, L., Mark, G., and Gonzale, V. Why Do I Keep Interrupting Myself?: Environment, Habit and Self-Interruption. Proceedings of CHI’11, Vancouver, Canada, 2011.

• Ducheneaut, N., and Watts, L.A. In Search of Coherence: A Review of E-Mail Research. Human-Computer Interaction 20, pp. 11-48, 2005.

• Fisher, D., Brush, A.J., Gleave, E., and Smith, M.A. Revisiting Whittaker & Sidner's "Email Overload" Ten Years Later. Proceedings of CSCW'06, Banff, Canada, pp. 309-312, 2006.

• Gonzalez, V.M., and Mark, G. "Constant, Constant, Multi-tasking Craziness": Managing Multiple Working Spheres. Proceedings of CHI'04, Vienna, Austria, pp. 113-120, 2004.

• Grevet, C., Choi, D., Kumar, D., and Gilbert, E. Overload is Overloaded: Email in the Age of Gmail. Proceedings of CHI’14, Toronto, Canada, pp. 793-802, 2014.

• Hanrahan, B.V., Perez-Quinones, M.A., and Martin, D. Attending to Email. Interacting with Computers, 2014.

• Jackson, T., Dawson, R., and Wilson, D. The Cost of Email Interruption. Journal of Systems & Information Technology 5(1), pp. 81-92, 2001.

Research 1/3

• Jerejian, A.C.M., Reid, C., and Rees, C.S. The contribution of email volume, email management strategies and propensity to worry in predicting email stress among academics. Computers in Human Behavior 29, pp. 991-996, 2013.

• Kushlev, K., and Dunn, E.W. Checking email less frequently reduces stress. Computers in Human Behavior 43, pp. 220-228, 2015.

• Mano, R.S., and Mesch, G.S. E-mail characteristics, work performance and distress. Computers in Human Behavior 26, pp. 61-69, 2010.

• Mark, G., Gonzalez, V.M., and Harris, J. No Task Left Behind? Examining the Nature of Fragmented Work. Proceedings of CHI’05, Portland, USA, pp. 321-330, 2005.

• Mark, G.J., Voida, S., and Cardello, A.V. "A Pace Not Dictated by Electrons": An Empirical Study of Work Without Email. Proceedings of CHI'12, Austin, USA, pp. 555-564, 2012.

• O'Kane, P., and Hargie, O. Intentional and unintentional consequences of substituting face-to-face interaction with e-mail: An employee-based perspective. Interacting with Computers 19, pp. 20-31, 2007.

• Pielot, M., Church, K., and Oliveira, R.D. An In-Situ Study of Mobile Phone Notifications. Proceedings of MobileHCI'14, Toronto, Canada, pp. 233-242, 2014.

• Pielot, M., Oliveira, R.D., Kwak, H., and Oliver, N. Didn't You See My Message? Predicting Attentiveness to Mobile Instant Messages. Proceeding of CHI'14, Toronto, Canada, 2014.

• Ramsay, J., and Renaud, K. Using insights from email users to inform organisational email management policy. Behaviour & Information Technology 31(6), pp. 587-603, 2012.

• Soucek, R., and Moser, K. Coping with information overload in email communication: Evaluation of a training intervention. Computers in Human Behavior 26, pp. 1458-1466, 2010.

Research 2/3

• Sumecki, D., Chipulu, M., and Ojiako, U. Email overload: Exploring the moderating role of the perception of email as a 'business critical' tool. International Journal of Information Management 31, pp. 407-414, 2011.

• Szostek, A.M. 'Dealing with My Emails': Latent user needs in email management. Computers in Human Behavior 27, pp. 723-729, 2011.

• Teevan, J., and Hehmeyer, A. Understanding How the Projection of Availability State Impacts the Reception of Incoming Communication. Proceedings of CSCW’13, San Antonio, USA, pp. 753-757, 2013.

• Wainer, J., Dabbish, L., and Kraut, R. Should I Open this Email?: Inbox-Level Cues, Curiosity and attention to Email. Proceedings of CHI’13, Vancouver, Canada, pp. 3439-3448, 2013.

• Whittaker, S., Matthews, T., Cerruti, J., Badenes, H., and Tang, J. Am I Wasting My Time Organizing Email? A Study of Email Refinding. Proceedings of CHI'11, Vancouver, Canada, pp. 3449-3458, 2011.

Research 3/3

Effective Team Communication- The 6 Step Improvement Process

effective team communication - the 6 step improvement process

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