May 10, 2016
You know the meetings where everyone has to commune in a boardroom. Someone opens, followed by a small agenda. Once you are minutes deep in conversation, you begin to realize there must be a more efficient way of getting this message communicated. However annoying these meetings are, it does make some sense. When information needs to be communicated to multiple people, you must all come together to discuss the matters, right? Well... Maybe not. Here at the Webconnex headquarters, we like avoid these notorious meetings at all costs. We happen to have one handy tool that helps keep us out of meetings, while not slacking off.
This awesome tool is called Slack, and it has been a pivotal tool we use to avoid meetings. Don’t get me wrong, we all love each other and appreciate the occasional meeting; but man, sometimes I just need info from one person on a topic without the additional thoughts and opinions of others. This isn’t to say that we don’t recognize the need for in-person meetings, but often a meeting with five or more people just isn’t necessary to get a resolution to a problem.
Slack allows public and private channels of messaging between anyone who works with you. You can direct message people, add files, videos, you name it. It is probably the pinnacle of team messaging right now. This tool makes each day at Webconnex much more efficient. It allows us to bounce ideas off of individuals while in the midst of our daily tasks. This avoids the unnecessary ritual of taking a group of ten people away from their daily tasks to talk, overtalk, and re-talk about a particular subject.
Some might mock at how personally disconnected we have become in our effort to integrate technology more and more into our lives. I understand that criticism, and while there may be times a colleague and myself are sending messages to and fro while sitting in the same room, we still find it necessary for us as a small team. Slack enables us to multitask while helping all of our wonderful customers.
The fact is that Slack is one of the most important tools we use. It may not be for everyone, but as the way we communicate with each other evolves, it is nice to have a suitable tool to follow along with how we are changing as communicators.
Before we finish this article out, check out this video with awesome (CG) animals in it. It will give a taste of why we love using Slack on our team.
It is kind of serene. Think of being in a room full of eager team members solving problems, while still having the zen of quietness in the air. If it were me, I would have your team try this tool out, even if just for a week or two. My hope is you will be pleasantly surprised at how a quiet room can be bursting with ideas.
Thanks Slack! We love you guys. Now here is an idea; need to put together a great event? Use Slack to talk about it with your team, and use the awesome tools at Webconnex to pull it off