Communication Rules

How to stop wasting time and get your message across

Ed was a salesman. He practically lived in his car.

And often when he was on the road in meetings all day, the team in his office needed to get ahold of him. So they would call, or text, or DM, or email. Ed was inundated with messages. But his staff wasn't happy either. If he didn't answer right away they'd send the same message some other way. Ed was besieged by duplicates and then the staff wasted time trying to find the one he actually answered.

Sound familiar?

Name a random employee: _____________________________

Now list all the ways you could reach out to tell them something

• Text

• DM

• Voicemail

• Phone call (does anyone do that anymore?)

• Email

• Slack, Teams, Google chat (or similar chat platform)

• Any proprietary or industry specific software you use

• Meetings (video or face to face)

And guess what? They can reach out to you in all these ways.

This is Nuts!

Source: Microsoft Creative Commons

Here's the solution we came up with for Ed and his team. There would be rules around which method of communication to use based on the response time needed.

This made it obvious for both Ed and the staff which platform to use and what to expect. It put a structure to his day and made everyone more efficient.

Your situation might be different, so your rules might be different as well. Here are some things missing from that list that you might need.

• Rules about what needs to be kept permanently and where it should be kept.

• Rules about who should be copied on which kinds of communication. Often this is because some people need to be informed but don't need to respond.

• Rules about email. See below.

Some companies have email holidays - time in the week when you can't use emails. Some people enforce deep work time when they can't be interrupted by any communications. Setting rules and protocols is a tradeoff between allowing complete autonomy for each individual and structure that works better for the organization. That's one of the eternal tensions in life. Don't leave it to chance.

Productivity can’t be left up to the individual.

Suppose Henry Ford had given his workers all the best tools and materials plus blueprints for the cars, let them loose in an empty factory and told them to be productive. That's what was happening in manufacturing before the assembly line was invented. But the assembly line boosted productivity because it provided interchangeable parts and fostered division of labor. Those aspects of the manufacturing process are not the responsibility of the individual workers. They are designed and provided by management.

Knowledge workers need the same. Their "parts", if you will, are ideas and knowledge. The "assembly line" is not the communication tools. We've already got too many of those. What's needed is a structure to support people in doing their best work, like the assembly line supports specialists at each workstation. That means rules and protocols about how to use which communication tools in which ways. Those rules and protocols need to be provided by management. Read that last sentence again.

Don't use Communication for the Wrong things

This idea came from Josh Schultz. He says there are 3 distinct types of tools companies need.

1. Communication Tools (to share ideas and get answers)

2. Execution Tools (to track projects and tasks)

3. Knowledge Tools (to keep evergreen knowledge, SOPs etc. that the company is learning). This is the permanent archive. If a communication needs to be saved, it should be moved from the communication tool to here.

Just keeping these things separate and insisting people consider which type of tool they need to use in the moment does a lot to keep things flowing. Toward that end, Josh also recommends not letting these tools be too customizable. That can lead to complication and confusion. Here's a link to his short video

https://x.com/joshuamschultz/status/1819370561270612310

This Meeting Should Have been an Email

You've heard that before. Here's what's behind that saying. Meetings are synchronous: everyone participates at the same time. Email (and other forms of electronic communication) are not. Asynchronous communication doesn’t come naturally to humans. It takes planning to have it go well. After all, we evolved in small tribes communicating in real time. Giving people access to multiple communication tools without structure leads to:

• Multiple interruptions like Ed was experiencing.

• Lazy and wasteful meetings. (Doing meetings well is the subject for another day.)

The solution?

Design your communication protocol. Start with this chart and adapt it as needed. And don't "Set it and forget it". Revisit the rules periodically.

Special Cases

Setting up Meetings

Email is terrible for stuff that needs quick back and forth. Don't use email to schedule a meeting. Use YouCanBook.me or some other app for that. When setting up a meeting for multiple people, use something like a doodle poll or have EAs with calendar access do it.

Assigning Tasks

Each must have a due date. When you assign the task, you’ve got an expected due date in your head. It’s unfair not to share that. It's best to use a centralized platform for task assignments. This makes follow-up easy (or better yet, unnecessary). Most industry-specific workflow software has this capability, or it can be as simple as a spreadsheet with a row for each task and a column for the task name, the assignee, and the due date.

Communications Outside the Company

Unfortunately, those pesky customers and vendors don't always adhere to our rules. I hate it when that happens. 😁 Here's what you can do.

• Answer any and all incoming platforms that customers, prospects, and others want to use. And let them know right away that you got the message and are working on it.

• Sometimes you can force people to use a web form. Customer support often does this. It puts a request right into your ticketing software. But it assumes the other person is motivated to use your platform. When they’re not motivated, you’ll lose them. Prospects for example, often aren't motivated enough to wait.

• Some people prefer a live person answering the phone, some prefer not to talk to a human. Be flexible.

Good Email Hygiene.

Email is its own can of worms. Here are some rules you should consider. The first two are the most beneficial.

• Only 1 subject per email. If you need to talk about 5 things, send 5 emails.

• Can you put the whole message in the subject line? If not, make the subject line as informative as possible.

• Some companies use codes in the subject line like:

  • EOM (means End of Message - you don't even have to open the email).

  • Urgent (Consider if urgent messages should use a different platform.)

  • No Reply needed.

• Generally, emails should be brief. But if not, see if it makes more sense to link to a longer document you've got stored somewhere.

• Repeat the context. Have you ever gotten to your 8th or 10th email of the hour and it just says "THANKS" or "YES THAT'S FINE"? Now you have to go back through the thread to figure out what they're talking about. Instead include the context. Say "Thanks for sending along the information about the Jenkins account." or "That's fine - go ahead and approve the new equipment."

• How chatty should you be? I get that small talk is the lube of social intercourse, but this is a cultural thing. If you want terse communication (or not) talk about it so folks don't take it personally when they shouldn't.

• Remember people can't see your smile or hear your tone of voice. Specify if you're serious or being sarcastic. Anything that can be taken wrong probably will be.

I want to thank Peter Lohmann

He had me on his podcast recently. He's a kindred spirit when it comes to systems so it was great to talk shop with him. You can watch it at Output Thinking with John Seiffer

If you found this useful, here's where you can find more from me.

• 1-1 Coaching - I only work with a few clients at a time but anyone can sign up for a free session.

• My video channel on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/ceobootcamp