collaborate with team

No matter how big your team is, you will need to have a good grip on communication in order to accomplish anything. Most people use email or chat for this, but depending on what it is you are trying to achieve, this may not be a good way to go about it.

The truth is that while we think we are effectively and quickly communicating when resorting to email and IMs, this is more the illusion of effective communication.

According to an article in the Atlantic from January 11, 2018, it has become normal to ignore emails and texts:

Digital messages mimic the speed of real conversation, but often what people like best is the ability to put them off.

But there is also an understanding that you don’t have to reply to any message you receive immediately. As much as these communication tools are designed to be instant, they are also easily ignored. And ignore them we do. Texts go unanswered for hours or days, emails sit in inboxes for so long that “Sorry for the delayed response” has gone from earnest apology to punchline.

As a result, information contained in emails and IMs often gets lost.

Add to this the increasing challenge of having a team who, more often than not, may not even be in the same room most of the time.

What you think you are dealing with, communication-wise, is this:

group working

What you actually have, is more like this:

Thankfully, there are numerous free or close-to-free tools at your disposal, which we will cover in the following sections:
collaborate chat
Effective real-time communication
meeting applications
Effective online meetings
collaborate project management
Online project management basics
collaborate wiki
Using Wikis for collaboration