Regardless of whether you work in a small business, a medium-sized company or even a large corporation: The best results require good team communication! And many providers have recognized this. There are countless tools for smaller and larger tasks. From simple to-do lists, to more or less extensive collaboration and communication tools, to platforms for complete project planning and management.
None of it helps - if the communication framework is not clear enough, none of these tools will be of much help. However, it is definitely worth putting some effort into the organization. If communication is currently more stressful for you than minute no. 234 of a meeting marathon, then we have a few tips and methods for better team communication for you.
Tip 1: Clarity of roles
Especially when working from home, working in the field or communicating across several locations means that there is no opportunity for a brief "face-to-face" exchange: It is important that team members know or can easily find out who the contact person is.
Business messengers such as stashcat offer you an internal contact book - without any private cell phone numbers. This means that all internal company contacts are clearly defined. Access within the contact book can be restricted via contact groups. For example, you can specify that marketing can only communicate within the department, with the sales team and with the accounts department.
Tip 2: Clarity of tasks
Who does what?
Once a person has been found who WILL take responsibility for a certain topic, CAN take responsibility (qualifications and competence fit) and MAY take responsibility (authority over necessary resources) - then it is important to communicate this clearly within the team.
The High Secure Messenger stashcat offers you the following option: To easily clarify the roles within the messenger, you can use the manager roles within a channel, for example. For example, the manager of the "KPI Online Marketing" channel is easily recognizable for new team members as the person who is in charge of the channel topic.
Tip 3: Clarity of goals
Where do we want to go?
In order to improve collaboration in the long term, you should make yourself and your team aware of the goals you are pursuing with communication. Do you want to create a strong corporate identity, improve your employer branding and thus strengthen your colleagues' sense of belonging to the company?Then choose a tool, for example:
- that supports your employer brand through corporate design adjustments
- which also scores points with applicants thanks to its modern usability
- which reflects how conservative or modern your company is through a suitable form of communication.
On the one hand, a company messenger like stashcat offers you a wide range of functions. At the same time, it remains easy to use even for people who are not familiar with messengers. For example, stashcat's enterprise package allows your company to have a customized messenger app.
Tip 4: Always informed
The (communication) path is the goal!
Flexible and direct communication channels enable more than just keeping employees informed: When communicating, pick up your team members where you are and guide them towards your common goals.
Create opportunities for the team, e.g:
- provide uncomplicated access to forms and advertising material
- communicate company updates on a regular basis
- Provide KPIs for marketing and sales
Communication via Messenger, for example, is often perceived as more up-to-date than an email exchange. This is because you and your colleagues have the option of always offering the latest media for download via file storage in folder structures, distributing information in a read-only channel or via broadcast or also providing information about news via video conference in a regular jour fixe (see tip 5). This saves you and your company the time required for time-consuming email distribution lists and offers employees a collective, individual or no feedback channel for distributed news and information, depending on their needs. The latter can also be helpful in some cases to avoid unwanted discussions.
Tip 5: Jour fixe
The information anchor!
Have you ever considered a jour fixe when optimizing your communication structures? This brings everyone involved together to exchange information and interim results and to plan the next steps. For long-term projects in particular, it makes sense to meet regularly on a fixed date. To prevent your meetings from becoming overloaded and a chore for those involved, it is helpful to
- define a clear and manageable time slot
- assign one person the role of moderator to keep an eye on the time and topics and steer the meeting accordingly
- to send a written summary to the participants (and those who missed it) afterwards so that current statuses, agreements and goals are dealt with until the next Jour Fixe meeting and are not forgotten.
This usually weekly appointment should, of course, fit into the daily work routine of everyone involved right from the start. So start a survey straight away and agree on a suitable time as a team. Now enter this automatically and repeatedly in the team calendar. The poll and calendar modules are the most popular collaboration tools on the stashcat messaging platform.
Tip 6: Feedback
The motivator!
Whether appreciation or criticism: feedback is important! It helps to strengthen the team as a functioning unit and to optimize the quality and quantity of work. In short: feedback is the linchpin of good cooperation.
Not everyone always agrees and sometimes the path to a solution that satisfies everyone is bumpy. Use the possibilities of a modern communication tool to establish a healthy feedback culture and to prevent or eliminate conflicts on the way to the best solution.
It doesn't always have to be the "big sweeping blow": In Feedback, for example, give quick feedback with a simple like to a message to signal that you support a comment. Otherwise, Messenger for Business naturally offers you all the communication tools you need to give feedback: With video conferences or 1:1 voice or video calls, you have the perfect options for exchanging information regardless of time and location. stashcat enables direct and end-to-end encrypted voice and video telephony, and this is easily integrated into the apps - without any private cell phone numbers.
Tip 7: Creativity
But without excessive tools!
Once our previous tips have been followed and communication structures have been defined, the final step is for everyone involved to adopt an open attitude towards new ideas. Co-creativity in a team requires the willingness of individuals to leave their own comfort zone in the group. This is only possible if an unbiased working environment is created in which people treat each other with respect and as equals.
stashcat gives you and your team a digital space for creative team communication and coordination.
A particular strength of stashcat is that the business messenger provides you with everything you need to map both simple and highly complex infrastructures. Your new messenger can easily accommodate any organizational structure and size.
Have you noticed that the new team communication works perfectly? Work together across teams, departments, locations and countries. Establish efficient, secure and simple team communication across your company and group with stashcat.
We look forward to your comments and reports on our 7 tips for better team communication
