Slack with everything

Slack is surely one of those tools that many of us have learned to see as something natural, as an indispensable part of our work life, a kind of professional bond. The name of the company, founded by Stewart Butterfield in 2013, after having sold Flickr to Yahoo!, who says the name means Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge, and has been defined by some as the email killer: although it has yet to eliminate it completely — all companies receive and send emails — it’s doing a good job at the internal level. In August, Slack raised $427 million in a financing round, putting its valuation above $7.2 billion, a milestone for a company in the field of internal communication that, in addition, is successfully punching above its weight with multibillion-dollar giants like Microsoft or Facebook.

Companies that use Slack as an internal communication tool often end up doing so obsessively, creating channels in which all kinds of activity are collected, which in many cases exceeds the limits of the professional and focuses on more personal activities. I know companies which have channels for jokes, for hobbies, to coordinate sports activities… A recent article by Fast Company, “The Slackification of work”, argues that this behavior is logical and positive because it replicates the water cooler chat, helping people bond, and impacting positively on the work environment or corporate culture. In the context of increasingly delocalized companies with highly fragmented workforces, Slack becomes an increasingly important factor.

In many ways, Slack represents the adaptation of office-based work to a time when we go to the office only when something requires our physical presence or we particularly want to meet with someone, rather than doing it through a teleconferencing tool, and instead we work from home, from one of these ubiquitous coworking centers or from where it is most comfortable. Slack is a recognition that, although our relationship with certain people is professional, it is important to open other spaces for communication in which other conversations, other activities and other elements that are not necessarily professional take place, as a way to structure and make relationships healthy. And in that sense, Slack has managed to fit really well, linking its growth to the progressive expansion of these types of cultures.

In my case, I use Slack regularly to coordinate with other teachers and with the office of one of the schools in which I teach (although the “official” tool of communication in the university is different), and also to keep me informed about some of the companies with which I work as a consultant or with organizations with which I collaborate: six completely different Slack channels, but which have become an important coordination tool, where I an deal not only with internal communication, but, as the above article notes, with many more aspects. A typical day in the office, but without the office. And you? What’s your experience with Slack? Something to share?

(En espa?ol, aquí)

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