How Slack solved internal communications (and why email still sucks)

So this is not a blog I thought I would ever write, as I simply didn’t consider myself an expert on the topic of internal communications. However, after a year working in an “enterprise” organisation, and having once again been exposed to Microsoft’s communication products (after a decade of respite), it turns out I might know enough to share some thoughts. To be explicit I have no financial connection to Slack and don’t know anyone who works there!

The truth is that I’d forgotten what it was like to work in an organisation that didn’t use Slack.

Slack became popular when I was still finding my way as a technologist (if that’s the right word to describe my career) a decade ago and was therefore so ingrained in my day-to-day life that, like Whatsapp with my friends, I couldn’t even remember the original problem it solved — to kill email. I’d worked in larger companies that needed other tools like Notion, Trello etc to complement Slack, but not somewhere where it simply didn’t exist.

However, the last 12 months have taught me a lot and no lesson has been more important than learning what life inside an organisation can be like without Slack, and just how hard “a lack of Slack” makes everything. Yes, it’s true that in some organisations Slack traffic can become overwhelming and therefore guides need to be created as part of new starter onboarding (for example see an old Monzo one here) — however I didn’t realise that going back to a world before Slack would lead to a personal daily existential crisis.

It is true that Microsoft has now turned Yammer into Teams, which ironically closely resembles the old Google hangouts (remember the #shydino easter egg !?) with a splash of Google+ thrown in for good measure, but unlikely to have made a difference, as it’s essentially still akin to email in how it works — therefore people will probably not see the point and mostly still email each other.

Let that sink in: without slack, email might once again become your dominant form of internal communication for all topics.

If that doesn’t fill you with dread, then it should do. What is below, is an adaptation of what I created internally to help my organisation understand what Slack is, why it is fundamentally different to email (and Teams), and why it might change everything (if you’re able to adopt it)…

The problem with email — it’s a closed channel

After a decade away, I started fresh and open minded with Outlook, surely it must have improved noticeably in that time? Sadly after 3 weeks of (re)learning the product and email in general — the verdict was the same. Email was cumbersome, time consuming and wasn’t helping me work out wtf was going on within the business. Microsoft Teams wasn’t any better and after sitting in numerous meetings that didn’t need to exist, with no obvious way to share what was decided — I knew the answer to so many problems was Slack, but I didn’t know precisely why. But after really analysing what Slack does, the answer was surprisingly obvious: the ability for anyone to create an “open” channel, that anyone else can find and join (or leave).

Is it that simple? Well, yes, tbh. Let’s think about an example…

I have a problem to solve, I don’t know how to solve it or who is needed to help. What do you do?

Without slack…

• You spend time thinking about who the right people might be and then email them a summary of the problem, you might link a document.
• Someone replies all with an out of office. Good start.
• Someone else replies all and cc’s in someone they think should be involved.
• They reply all saying happy to help, but can’t see the attachment.
• You reply all back with it.
• Get the same out of office.
• Someone replies saying they can’t help, please take them off the email chain.
• Someone else replies and asks for a summary of the email chain.
• Someone else suggests a meeting time. You spend an hour looking for a time that works for most people.
• Someone says they can’t make that time.
• You find a new time.
• You have a meeting a week later.
• Only some people turn up, you all share what you know about the problem.
• You run out of time.
• You arrange another meeting.
• Bla bla bla etc….

For those who use slack, your back muscles probably just tweaked enough to need a deep tissue massage; for those who don’t use slack you’re likely saying “so what, that’s just how work works!”. The problem is, it doesn’t have to be, I promise you.

With Slack…

• You create an open channel (think group chat) with the name of your problem (eg. #temp-on-call-rota-christmas) and share a link to the document/notion page etc.
• You add some people you think may be useful.
• They add some more people and some leave (you don’t notice).
• You each add the context you have and there is some discussion (eg. what dates you might be available, what processes you have seen work well in the past, who else might need to be informed about the plan etc..).
• You likely agree on a solution and might share an “FYI” link in other relevant channels
• You archive this channel.

Now this is of course based on some assumptions, but they are realistic and certainly not the best or worst case of either scenario. If you want more info on how to do the above, I wrote a basic guide here: Getting started with Slack.

Email chains are closed communication channels — you cannot join and leave as you see fit and this cannot be changed. It is the reason information cannot flow freely through an organisation that defaults to email and simply put, email is likely the glass ceiling that prevents those companies from being able to move quickly and innovate (and yes I heard of SuperHuman). And that’s not to mention how annoying the user experience of reading multiple signatures and to/cc/bcc fields is.

These are the reasons Slack grew exponentially when it launched and took over the world (until Microsfoft gave away Teams for “free” and made it sound more “secure”) — if you’re at startup and not using Slack, then it’s unlikely you’re going to be successful. Slack didn’t invent open communications channels — it’s trying to replicate walking around your office and overhearing conversations, which has existed forever. However Slack made this possible to do this without being physically in the same building and most importantly when compared to other tools in the space, democratised open channel creation by allowing anyone to do it by default (unlike MS Teams). When discussing the impact of introducing Slack at your organisation (and why it’s better than email), this ability to have conversations in the open is the crux of the feature and increasing the speed you deliver, is the obvious benefit.

3 Symptoms of the problem

Ok, so maybe you believe me and are thinking “do I have an internal communications problem”? Well here are a couple of symptoms:

1) Are you drowning in meetings that end in more meetings?

I want to be very explicit: there is nothing wrong with a group of people getting together to solve a problem (aka ‘the meeting’). It is not the meeting’s fault, and it’s not even the fault of the person who created the meeting. And no, a world-class agenda will not save the situation. It is almost certainly the fault of the organisation for not providing a better way to share information.

If you find yourself in meetings where the only achievable goal is to share information, then you’ve got a clear symptom of the problem I’m describing. If you’re in a successful meeting, but the only way to convey the outcomes effectively is through word of mouth, that too is a clear symptom of the problem.

I’ve been in numerous organisations that decide the solution is to cull the meetings, but to do so without understanding the underlying problem is a mistake — it will destroy the only way you currently have to share information and likely kill your ability to deliver.

Now add the fact that most businesses are trying to be “hybrid/remote friendly” in some way and this problem is only going to get worse, as even less information is transferred in these meetings. Decisions will get slower and your organisation is going to get less done — and yes, you might lose to your competitors because of this.

So how does your organisation share information? Have you got a playbook? And if you say “via sharepoint”, then please take a seat at the back of the room and put the hat on saying “sharepoint will not solve anything for anyone”.

Slack is that playbook. It allows your internal culture to become your communications strategy. It evolves as you do, it lets people be creative and create their own emojis, it lets people create channels about things other than work, it encourages you to have fun whilst at work and it does so in the open to show that’s normal. People stay at companies because of culture, companies win because of culture — who’s making sure yours allows people to communicate?

2) People don’t know what’s going on outside of their immediate team or department?

Do you find it hard to know what other teams are doing? Do you hear constant talk of “breaking silos” of information and knowledge? No Slack won’t solve this on its own, but it will certainly be a good place to start.

3) Can’t find a document or the pre-read?

Searching through your emails can be a nightmare as you can’t opt in or out to what’s being sent your way. Important information gets lost and you’re unable to parse the crucial memo from the cold-call recruitment email. The lunch menu now has as much importance as someone getting fired and no, tags, filters and folders are not going to save you. Slack allows you to decide what conversations you’re a part of and which you want to leave (or just “mute”).

Slack helps you create a “see problem, fix problem” culture

Often described as a “bias for action” by startups on job descriptions — Slack allows you to build a culture where people don’t need to ask permission to solve problems. Anyone can create a channel, anyone can post in a channel and anyone can suggest a solution. It won’t reduce your reliance on hierarchy without wider efforts, but can make it normal for the CEO to drop into a convo and leave a supportive emoji reaction (without it being weird).

This change can have a truly revolutionary effect on your organisation’s ability to move fast and win, as people aren’t constantly stuck waiting for the next meeting or for someone else to authorise them to solve the problem.

This culture can extend to how you collaborate with other organisations — rather than going back and forth by email, you can use a “shared” slack channel to chat with your partners like you would your own team mates (emojis and all). This makes the work happen more quickly, costs less and builds trust across the organisational boundary, which in turn can lead to greater chance of success for the outcomes of the work itself.

Slack’s autonomy allows space for creativity, fostering new ways to bring people together. Whether it’s setting up a squash ladder or suggesting which Pokémon each member of the team embodies, Slack consistently serves as the vehicle that injects fun into the daily pursuit of work. When placed at the heart of your company culture, Slack makes it more likely that people will form connections, share proposals for comment, and give feedback on the latest company initiatives.

So what’s the catch — you have to trust your people

Well Slack’s not “free”, like most SaaS products you pay “per active user, per month” and once you start using it, you’re going to want to keep using it — so you will need to create space in your “keeping the lights on” budget in perpetuity. However, it will pay for itself in speed (efficiency and effectiveness) and I don’t know of any company that has ever gone back to email after using it, which says a lot.

Also democratising information within an organisation, to allow faster decisions to be made, is scary in its own right — more people would be making decisions than before and that comes with inherent risk. And it’s not built by Microsoft, so it works but will have fewer levels of authentication.

So that means if you want to move to this world, one where it takes days to see ideas become reality — then you’re going to need to take a leap of faith with everyone who works at the company. You’re going to need to believe in the power of self-organisation, you’re going to need to talk about accountability (a lot) and you’re going to need to hold yourself to a high standard as a (servant) leader.

Wherever you work, it likely starts with you

If you’re starting a new company it’s easy — slack gives you a free version that will solve your initial team (and 3rd party) needs. Teach your team to use it, explain channels, model good behaviour. Install giphy, integrate with Notion and Trello — make the benefits really obvious quickly, the rest will take care of itself.

If you’re leading a transformation of an older org, then you’re going to have to find a way to carve out a business unit that has enough autonomy to make it work for them and then hope people don’t feel threatened by this micro-culture. At some point, you’ll have to engage with the Microsoft/email loyalists. Be kind and try to meet halfway initially — have empathy; it’s a significant technological leap to make all at once.

If you’re the CEO, then install on everyone’s machines and just start using it to communicate, people will follow just because you’re the CEO :)

As Peter Drucker said, ‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast' — so what does your choice of communication tools say about your company strategy?

Want to win — then make Slack the centre of how your organisation gets things done.