Team Communication
A lot has been written about one-to-one communication. Some might think that the principles remain the same once you scale up to communication within a team. And mostly they do, but team communication has added complications that need to be dealt with.
But first...
Let’s explore why teams add even more trouble to the already complicated minefield of communication.
Teams are Going to Grow
That’s just how it is in business. There’s always too much work. New expertise is required. And many more reasons.
As Teams Grow, Communication Gets More Complicated
If there are 2 people on a team (the minimum required number for a team) then there is 1 line of communication.
If you add a 3rd person suddenly the lines of communication jump to 3.
If you add a 4th then the lines of communication jumps to 6.
If the team grows to 5 there are 10 lines of communication.
When it’s 6 there’s 15 communication lines.
In fact, as the team grows, the lines of communication grow exponentially. Here’s a little table demonstrating how communication gets more complicated.
Team Size -> Lines of Communication
2 -> 1
3 -> 3
4 -> 6
5 -> 10
6 -> 15
7 -> 21
8 -> 28
9 -> 36
10 -> 45
If you’re not confused enough already there’s a formula: Team Size x (Team Size - 1) / 2
I met someone the other day who had a team of 80 people! So let’s work that out: 80 x (80 - 1) / 2 = 3,160
That’s a whopping 3,160 lines of communication.
Why is this a Problem?
We've got emails and meetings right?! How are they working out for you? What I usually hear from our clients is that they’ve got too many emails and too many meetings.
Whatever issues a company, team or person have in regard to communication quickly get multiplied when more people get involved.
What to do about it
We’ve already established most people are already overwhelmed by their inboxes and meeting schedules. So what can we do to cope?
Back to Basics
Make sure you’ve got the foundations right first. Put into use all those tips, techniques and training courses you’ve been on. If people aren’t polite and don’t communicate one-to-one well in the first place then nothing else you do is going to matter. This is something we all struggle with everyday, even so called “experts” or “gurus”.
Use the Right Tools
As we’ve covered multiple times already in this article meetings and emails are the standard tools in the modern worker’s toolbox and boy do they get a lot of use.
But are we at risk of seeing every problem as a nail because all we have is a hammer?
Many people will automatically fall back to these tried and tested tools without thinking about it. Most people fire off an email when a quick phone call or walking across the office for a 2 minute face-to-face chat would be far better.
In recent years we’ve also gained other technological tools to replace email and meetings in certain situations.
Intranets & Wikis
Personally I hate the word Wiki but here we are. Why have people as stores of knowledge within an organisation when information can easily be digitised and placed in private online spaces for people to find?
The other day a friend of mine was lamenting his new job because all the information, systems and processes he needed to know were, as he put it, “in one bloke’s head and it takes him an hour to explain something that should take 20 mins”. Or probably take 5 mins to look up if it was in an Operations Manual.
Chat / Texting / Instant Messaging
Chat (as it is known nowadays, and by various other monikers depending on one’s age) is a hot new fad sweeping the corporate world. If you haven’t heard of Slack then where have your IT department been hiding? Real time chat is probably preventing billions of emails being sent every month. And while if used badly it can be just as overwhelming as email it is another option to add to your communication toolbox.
Plus many more...
This isn’t an exhaustive list (obviously there’s only 2 items on it, barely a list really). But they are the 2 most widely used and, paradoxically, most underused tools.
You can probably think up several more. Kanban, Agile, countless other systems, software and gadgets are out there.
Use the Tools Right
Just getting off autopilot will get you 80% of the way there. Before communicating en masse ask yourself some pertinent questions.
Do I really have to call this meeting? Who really needs to be there? What is the desired outcome of this meeting? Too much has been written about how to run effective meetings to fit in this article.
Do I really need to send this email? Do I really need to CC all these people? Can I just talk to someone quickly rather than contribute to their inbox anxiety?
I once caught myself sending an email to someone who sat on a desk 5 feet away just to notify him the task he needed done was complete. So I just got up and walked (shocking I know) over and delivered the message that way.
In Summary
- Don’t over rely on meetings and email, people are already up to their eyeballs in them.
- Make use of new tools, systems and processes that are more appropriate.
- It doesn’t matter what tools you use if you’re not using them effectively.
- Get the basics right. If you rub someone up the wrong way it doesn’t matter if you did it over email or to their face.
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6 年Who'd have thought there was a team size formula! I can't argue with how well it demonstrates the vast increase in lines of communication by just adding a few more people to a team, interesting read Kris Northfield.