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On Engaging Leader, we share a lot of principles about leadership communication, but what about collaboration communication? In other words, what’s the most effective and efficient way to talk to the colleagues and clients you work with most closely in order to do great work together?
That’s a trick question, because there isn’t (yet) a single communication tool that’s best for every moment of collaboration. The answer depends on several factors, which we’ll quickly discuss and then share Jesse’s current favorite tool for the different situations.
Three tools limited people who are stuck in the mid-90s:
- In-person meeting
- Conference call
10 considerations when picking a communication tool at any given moment:
- In person vs. virtual
- Real-time vs. on-demand (asynchronous)
- Focusing vs. distraction-inviting
- Typed vs. spoken audio vs. visual
- Non-visual vs. screen sharing (webcast) vs. webcam (videoconference)
- Silent vs. audible
- Instant (urgent) vs. at-convenience
- Introverted vs. extraverted (speed and energy for you and the other person[s])
- Organized (threaded)
- Searchable (and archived)
Resources Mentioned in This Episode
Jesse’s current favorite communication tools for teamwork:
- Message board
- Basecamp (message board and task commenting)
- Facebook groups
- Instant messaging
- Voxer
- Ping feature in Basecamp 3
- Last resort: iOS or mobile text messages
- Screen capture (images) and screen recording (videos)
- Conference call with optional screen sharing and optional webcams
- Freeconferencecall.com
- Join.me
- Skype (no option to call in by phone)
- Google Hangout (poor reliability, no option to call in by phone)
- WebEx or GoToWebinar for larger groups
- Document commenting
- Comments tool for MS Office files, Google Apps files, or Adobe Acrobat
- Basecamp (task commenting)
- NOT the commenting features in storage platforms such as Dropbox (although I do love Dropbox)
- Real-time collaboration (simultaneous document editing)
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