Choosing your communication medium wisely

With so many ways to communicate at work, sometimes it’s hard to know which is the ‘right one’: Slack, Teams, DM, email, on a phone call, text message, video call, in person, carrier pigeon…?

• I try to choose my medium based on a few things:
• Who needs to see this?
• What am I asking them for?
• How will they feel about receiving it?
• What do I know about their preferred communication methods?
• How urgent is it?

For example, if sensitive emotions may be involved, it’s almost certainly best handled in person or over the phone, whereas a non-critical question that anyone could answer might be a Slack message in our Help channel.

Email gets a bad rap but it may still be the way to go when you are looking to formally communicate a decision, recap an important conversation, or send a team-wide announcement.