How can you use software to improve communication and problem solving?

In my experience, the above mentioned are great communication channels until they’re impacted and not available to communicate with your team, cross- functional teams or even creating an inability to communicate with the departments and agencies at various levels - leadership, technical, users, partners, etc… For that reason there should be multiple channels of communication - primary and secondary. This communication process and procedure has to be planned, developed, documented and communicated with all valued partners!

While Zoom, Teams, WebEx, and other platforms allow you to communicate, how may really facilitators really use ALL of the features these platforms offer? In my experience, White boards, file add ins such as .PDFs, on screen sharing and add ins are rarely used in the conversations. Training on the total software package can enhance the meeting experience and make it more collaborative.

From my experience, finding the right communication stack is one of the most important points. I've worked in remote teams with all ages and technical levels of ability. What seems logical to me, may not be the case for other workers. I've been in teams where multiple software systems have been utilized and abandoned only weeks or months later. Strategic planning, really understanding the core needs of the communication and the workers is vital.

Yes, tools like WhatsApp and Microsoft Teams are widely used for effective communication. They offer instant messaging, group chat, voice and video calling options, making it easy to collaborate and have discussions.

Agreed. Especially for virtual meetings with people who may speak a language in a certain accent or background noise. AI software will be able to increase the listening quality and improve the experience. With the help of ChatGPT, people can also increase productivity.

in the new workplace setup working in tribes started to be a wide practice, where the communication needs to be fast and effective, where all the team members in the tribe have equal accountability and responsibility, here comes a group on WhatsApp (with secured end to end) or a team on Microsoft teams as common software platforms which can be used to make the communication and problem solving effective.

I agree that software can be a great time-saving tool and improve communication but it needs to be embraced and utilized by everyone involved in order to see maximum benefits. I recently worked with a company that was using Miro Boards for project planning including all steps within each project. It was extremely interactive with the ability to visually see of exactly where things were, who was responsible for each step, where delays were occurring and what was causing the delay. It immediately sent an email to the a person or a specified group when action was taken. However, with any software it is only as good as those who are actively using it. If folks weren't comfortable working inside of it, its effectiveness lessened.

Personally, I believe in tailoring my management style to extract the best from each team member. This one particular team had a strong aversion (me too) to micro-management. However, we were struggling to keep remote members in the loop about project progress. So we implemented project mapping software. The outcome was genuinely impressive – suddenly, even the tiniest project details were accessible to the entire team. It might sound counterintuitive, given their feeling towards micromanagement, but because they were responsible and in control... they loved it. The team became more efficient, gained a deeper understanding of each other's challenges, and showed increased support for those struggling with workload.

In our global economy, effective collaboration with teams worldwide is crucial. Time zone differences often pose challenges. Tools for project management, whiteboarding, and file sharing can reduce the need for physical meetings. Meeting recordings are essential for inclusivity, aiding those facing language barriers, hearing impairments, or scheduling conflicts. Pre-recording contributions or using collaboration tools enhances transparency and productivity. When live interaction is necessary, displaying multiple time zones improves awareness. Organizers and participants must understand their local timezone offsets for efficient calendar management. Embracing these practices and tools enables seamless global collaboration.