Connecting with Colleagues and Other Professionals

We live in a technological world where teams of people separated by thousands of miles can collaborate and communicate from their home offices, or even their couches and dining tables. When you are working from home, without the opportunity to chat in the break room or meet up for lunch, you may be losing the opportunity to connect with other people and learn from their valuable insights. Working remotely can be challenging when you want to connect with people who have the same business interests, who can provide you with a set of amazing resources to help you succeed, and who look for your input and expertise to help them achieve their own goals. 

Staying connected to people is more than just being able to do your job. It is about staying relevant and maintaining influence in your sphere—which can be hard to do from your home office. 

Let’s look at some tools used to stay digitally connected with coworkers and other colleagues. We’ll measure the methods of communication they aid and how well they facilitate the social communication model.

• Document and work-sharing tools: Microsoft OneDrive and Google Documents are examples of tools that help you share work documents and collaborate on projects. For example, Microsoft’s SharePoint allows you to build a webpage for your department, house important and frequently used documents, and post basic one-sided messages that are usually directly related to the content. The Google Suite of cloud-based tools allows real-time collaboration on documents, spreadsheets, and slides with changes reflected instantly for all collaborators. None of these tools allows for conversation, and they aren’t meant to stand on their own as communication tools. Usually, there will be a related tool like Microsoft’s Outlook or Google’s Gmail that can be used for communication.
• Private messaging and “chat” tools: Private messaging and instant communication tools, like Webex, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and other chat tools, require that the message be written. The linear portion of communication (speaker–encoding–message–decoding–recipient) is easily facilitated in this method of communication, and “feedback” can be given, but “noise” is a frequent saboteur and not always easily identified.  Why? Because non-verbal communication is not present, tone of voice is not easily communicated. Written messages can be misinterpreted as aggressive, angry, or rude. Collaborative tools like Slack include a chat component in their platforms but offer additional components that make communication more effective.
• Video communication tools: Discord, Skype, Zoom, and video calls within tools such as Slack are examples of video communication tools that allow you to connect with people in real time. You can have a conversation with coworkers as if they were in the room with you. The benefits are easy to see; not only is there the ability for verbal and listening communication, but non-verbal communication is conveyed as well. Where a disembodied voice on an audio-only call might agree to a decision, a video conference participant might send a non-verbal signal like a shake of the head to indicate they are not happy with the result. The visual bonus allows for heightened feedback in the social communication model, and the ability to clarify when noise exists.

You can communicate more effectively when you understand the strengths and weaknesses of these digital communication tools. Tools that facilitate multiple types of communication (verbal, listening, non-verbal) and allow the completion of the social communication model’s circuit are more likely to aid you in getting your message across to your audience.