Consider both synchronised and asynchronised communication
Consider both “synchronised” and “asynchronised” communication
The favoured form of communication is face to face, apart from delivering speed of response, instant communication is favoured by majority of people for a small number of reasons:
- It feeds on a human desire for instant results and feedback.
- People want accurate and trustworthy information. In face to face, especially one to one, forms of internal communication they trust their own instincts with non-verbal communication to suss out the truth.
- People also want to be able to be listened too; after all we are all members of the AAA; No not roadside assistance…Attention, Acceptance and approval. Being listened to gives us a major injection of all three in one hit.
- In face to face communication, as opposed to written text, or PowerPoint presentations, the tendency is to use narrative or story telling to get our points across. Story telling has been central to communication throughout history. Stories or narratives are not fables or fairy tales they are the “case studies” of the conversation that enable the listener to experience and therefore understand.
- Most people use communication to accomplish their goals and often have to persuade others to put aside their goals or agendas to do so. People for all the above reasons feel they have a better chance if they can meet face to face.
Synchronised communication.
Face to face Meetings and Telephone appointments with either Agendas or Talk Files are two of the most common forms of “synchronised meetings.” The people you need to talk to are all on the same Telephone / Video / Skype Conference or in the same Meeting Room, all there at the same time.
In the list of activities that waste time and cause frustration at work, meetings rank very near the top. Not only do many meetings fail to result in any clear decision, leaving you wondering why people came together in the first place, others have no discernible purpose at all. Worst of all, holding too many meetings passes a strong message: the boss doesn’t trust the team to function without constant interference; and colleagues don’t trust one another not to undermine them in some way.
The organisation or manager who holds too many meetings slows work to a crawl; not just because no one has enough time to get anything done (they’re all in meetings), but because all the checking and ‘clearing your lines’ means the number of others with power to delay or prevent action is multiplied out of all proportion.
Set a Clear Purpose
A meeting ~ face to face or phone/video must have a clear purpose, a clear agenda to answer questions, solve problems, make decisions and create agreed actions. May be it is worse to hold constant pointless meetings than to not be available; either are forms of poor communication and produce little if any calibration.
Book meetings
Face to face or phone/video are better planned as “appointments” even if that is five minutes a day than ad-hoc, where one party “drops by” or telephones on the off-chance of catching the other free. If you ring someone who is not expecting your call at that precise moment, you are an “interruption” because they were doing something when you called. Plan it, book it, even five minutes once a day or once a week ~ you'll be more efficient and more effective.
Asynchronised Communication.
Asynchronous would mean there is no need to synchronise timing. No need for people to be in the same room or on the same phone call at the same time....
How is this possible? ~ Write things down..!
- Letters
- Slideshow
- Talk files
- Posters
- Noticeboards
- Clipboards
- Post-it notes
Improve thinking and creativity
The timing of the actual processing of different classes of messages can be optimised for different people at different times if the communication can be written down and made available to the other person. If you can reduce the volume of “synchronised” communication and make more “asynchronised” then your thinking time and their will not be disrupted in the way it often is when we just call people up to “bounce an idea around”.
Disruptive communication styles may ruin your creative work, it can also wreck your schedule. It is extremely easy to slip into talking about other things beyond the initial purpose and then time allocated for other key activities rapidly disappears. It is easy to impose a daily time-limit on reading / processing information. Things can be read incrementally or in sections or parts, All of the following advantages are amplified with incremental reading: prioritisation, creativity, memory consolidation, searchability, multiplicity of contacts and threads.
Creativity is for some part of reflection not talking: Slow and incremental flow of ideas generated by reading and reflection can magnify creativity for some. Ideas may be born very slowly. Yet they ultimately take far lesser cost per idea. Memory consolidation can also be amplified by allowing people reading and reflection time, in an ad-hoc phone call some of us are not so mentally agile and fail to recall vital pieces of information...
Remove emotions and pressure
Removing emotions and pressure by using planned asynchronised communication makes that communication both easier and more effective than when conducting face to face meetings. of course poor writing can of course lead to misinterpretation and mis-understanding. Writing things out can mean the writer puts more thought into the communication, and re-shaped difficult topics in the least painful manner without affecting the core message. Of course, once written it is hard to refute.
The whole concept of time-management is about maximising your efficiency, improving effectiveness and maximising the talent in each person across the whole team. If creativity is essential; if time-management is important; if deadlines are not pressing; if your typing skills are solid... Convert some of your face to face meetings and telephone meetings to written communication
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