Do Your Employees Communicate Too Much? How Going Quiet Improves Productivity and Innovation

Every manager has been taught that the key to being a good manager is communication. It often seems like the solution to every employee issue is communication. But, it is becoming clear that the quantity of communications in a typical company is part of the problem, not the solution. In many organizations employees may actually spend too much time communicating. But, all of that communication only serves to slow productivity and stifle innovation.

 Seeing Communication as Interruption

 How do your employees communicate? Chances are they send a lot of emails. They also may walk over to their neighbour’s cubicle to ask a quick question. Your company may use some form of messaging app as well. In most company cultures, employees are expected to respond to each of these kinds of communication immediately.

 But, what are employees doing when these communications arrive? They are working on their tasks for the day. This means that each communication is also an interruption. Each email, cubicle visit, or instant message interrupts someone’s workflow.

 This is a serious problem and has profound effects on productivity.

 The Importance of Deep Work

 Have you ever been in a state of deep concentration? In this state you are so focused, everything else melts away. It is just you and the work. All of the office background noise disappears. This is deep work. This is the mental state where breakthroughs happen, where you do your best work.

 It takes a while for most of us to achieve this state of deep work. You may need 15-minutes to a half-hour of uninterrupted focus to get into a deep work state. But, few people have 15 minutes of uninterrupted work time. Instead, their concentration is broken by an email alert or a colleague with a quick question.

 With every interruption, it takes another 15-minutes just to get back on task. So much critical thinking time is wasted because of all these efforts to communicate.

 Communicate with Purpose

 While communication is critical to the success of your organization, so is deep work. But, the deep work is not happening nearly enough because there is too much communication. Worst of all, most of the communication is not needed. Managers and employees often communicate without true purpose.

 Instead, communication is entered into out of habit, obligation, or a desire to control others. We have too much, poor quality communication when what we need is fewer, high-quality communications.

 You need to create a company culture where there must be a purpose to every communication. Communication needs to be viewed as an interruption of work, not as a part of the work itself. You should have a very good reason to interrupt deep work.

 Part of the cultural change that needs to happen is that everyone needs to embrace asynchronous communications. No one should be expected to deal with emails or messages immediately. Instead, managers need to stop using communications to micromanage employees. Employees should be allowed to work the timing of communications naturally into their day.

 Quality of Communication Matters—Not Quantity

 When the focus of communication is on the quality and not the quantity, communication becomes richer and more effective. It also produces fewer interruptions. Imagine if all of your employees could experience the state of deep work, the feeling of being in the flow, every day, multiple times a day.

 This would lead to increased productivity and more innovative breakthroughs. Fewer company emails may just be the “hack” that unlocks your employees’ full potential.