Recently a conservation leader’s WhatsApp group was pinging with messages around team communication, coordination, and connection. The group – made up of members from the African Conservation Leadership Network – was sharing their own experiences about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to managing teams and internal communications.
Recently a conservation leader’s WhatsApp group was pinging with messages around team communication, coordination, and connection. The group – made up of members from the African Conservation Leadership Network – was sharing their own experiences about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to managing teams and internal communications. Here’s what we learned from this WhatsApp chain:
Internal communications and effective team coordination are a common challenge that teams face – and it’s even harder during COVID when teams are spread out and working remotely. So if you’re reading this and feeling stuck yourself, you can take comfort in knowing that you’re not alone.
There are many ways to tackle this challenge (that’s the good news!), but success requires consistency, effort, leadership, adaptation and creativity.
Below we offer some insights from the group along with our experience that can help you improve your communications, coordination and connection with your team – whether it’s remote or not.
This one seems obvious, but you’d be surprised by how much it matters and how often it gets overlooked! There are so many different ways to communicate with your team – over a coffee, in a conference room, via email or through a newsletter. Then there are the online platforms, such as Slack (Maliasili’s favorite!), Zoom, or a project management site like Asana, Zoho, or Trello. And, of course, there’s WhatsApp! When you’re thinking about how you want to connect with your team, decide which platform(s) you’re going to use and for what purpose. Then communicate that decision to your team so they understand your expectations.
As teams we need to communicate, coordinate, and connect for lots of different reasons. It could be for work planning, budgeting, discussing a sensitive and sticky topic, sharing feedback, providing updates, or having fun and building team morale. You might choose different platforms for different purposes. That’s okay, but just make sure that you’re clear with your team about what you’re trying to achieve with your communications.
Whether you’re asking for updates or input on Slack or Asana or Google Docs or in a meeting, make sure that those participating know what’s expected of them. For example, you might have a regular format for weekly meetings or written updates, such as:
My key achievements this past week
My current priorities
Something that’s challenging me
Something I need someone’s help with
Something that’s inspiring me
No one wants to share updates, information, ideas, or news to an empty room! Make sure you have a few champions ready to engage and respond, ready to start conversations, set agendas, and keep people motivated.
Consistency is key to effective internal communications and overall team coordination. If you’ve been clear on expectations, then your team should know what’s expected of them, where, and by when. If you let things slide or get missed, then expectations will change, and – as we’ve all learned the hard way – breakdown.
If you read the last Reader you’ll know that effective teams need to balance ‘strategic’ with ‘intimate’ engagements. So don’t only make your communications and connection points work-related. Take time to ask your team how they’re doing personally. Starting with check-in questions to get everyone’s voice in the room is always helpful.
Internal communications and team coordination will likely have its ups and downs. Rather than getting frustrated, spend time figuring out what’s causing internal tension, miscommunication, and coordination challenges. Ask team members what they think isn’t working, what they want to see changed, and try out new things to see what works.
Some additional great ideas from conservation leaders…
Host an informal gathering every 6-8 weeks (or even quarterly), where you spend half the day doing a ‘deep dive’ on a work-related topic and the second half of the day eating and socializing.
Take time for ‘burning issues’ or the ‘elephant in the room’ conversations. There might be times when meeting or communications expectations goes out the window in order for your team to spend time working through tougher topics.
Rotate communication leads. Whether it’s a Zoom meeting or a request for Slack updates, rotate the person who is leading that week/month/quarter on the engagement. Develop a roster early on so everyone knows who is meant to lead during that time.
Share personal stuff! Our team loves sharing family photos or wildlife sightings or book recommendations and we know of other teams who have become much closer and much more engaged on their digital platforms by doing this.
Celebrate birthdays! Cakes are great, but a WhatsApp message is too and it allows for everyone on a team to reach out and be involved.
