What you’re probably getting wrong about workplace communication

The question, “Where do you work?” used to be answered by sharing your employer’s name. Today, however, it could also include the physical location, such as working from home, in the office full-time, or a combination of both. Whether your coworkers are down the hall or time zones away, a good percentage of your communication will be virtual.

“It’s commonplace to use instant messaging and email to communicate with people who are only a cubicle away,” says Andrew Brodsky, assistant professor of management at the University of Texas at Austin and author of Ping: The Secrets of Successful Virtual Communication. “But people often approach their workplace communication somewhat mindlessly. They use email because they’ve always used email for this. Or they have a meeting because we’ve always had meetings for this.”

Humans have been interacting with each other for thousands of years, but virtual communication on the scale of human history is recent, which means we haven’t yet mastered its best usage, says Brodsky. Unfortunately, your choice of communication tool can undermine your ability to build strong relationships and corporate culture by opening the door to misunderstandings or missed opportunities to connect.

Choosing the Right Form of Communication

Before you reach out to anyone, Brodsky recommends identifying your most important goal for the communication and determining the best mode to achieve that goal and improve work-related outcomes.

“Is it about being productive and concise so that I can focus on work tasks?” he asks. “Is it about building a relationship and trust in a situation? Is it about making a good impression? There isn’t one absolute best mode all the time; there are different best modes for different goals. Use that information to decide what technology will best achieve that goal.”

For example, if you need to ask someone a long series of questions, email isn’t the most efficient form. The recipient would need to carve out time to respond, which could take a day or two. They may also want to edit and rewrite their answers before sending them back to you, adds Brodsky. On the other hand, a live phone call can be scheduled for a half an hour as you go back and forth with questions, answers, and clarifications. This is also true for meetings.

“Many people say we should get rid of all meetings and only do emails,” says Brodsky. “What they miss is that emails have a good time sink because of this potential to want to edit and make sure everything’s perfect, as opposed to the naturalness of synchronous language that can happen in video meetings or phone calls.”

If a situation involves complex information, especially if it could need clarification and further questioning, then a synchronous mode, such as phone or video, is best. If a situation requires unambiguous certainty, then a text-based mode, like email or Slack, could be the most productive form.

Think About the Recipient

When you’re communicating virtually, whether it’s email, instant message, and video, it’s often hard to remember that there’s another person on the other side of communication because you’re staring at your computer screen, says Brodsky.

“That’s a problem because when other people don’t realize they’re interacting with a human being, they’re less likely to collaborate and build relationships,” he says.

Think about ways to humanize your communication that may happen naturally in face-to-face interactions, suggests Brodsky. For example, text-based communication tends to have less small talk, and while small talk decreases productivity, it’s useful for building trust and building relationships.

“The more familiar people feel with one another, the more they realize that there’s a human here—someone who’s got their own interests and feelings,” says Brodsky. “Small talk humanizes the interaction.”

In virtual communication, such as email, Brodsky recommends starting by briefly asking about something personal they recently mentioned, such as a weekend trip they took. You could also include a quick note about yourself that’s related so it doesn’t feel out of place. You can also build some time into the beginning of a videoconference call to make small talk.

“I’m not saying go into way too much detail about yourself,” says Brodsky. “Even a few quick words of small talk can be really useful for humanizing yourself and building trust.”

Find Opportunities for Spontaneous Communication

When you’re in person, water cooler conversations can happen organically, providing opportunities to connect and exchange information. If you’re working remotely or in a hybrid situation, Brodsky recommends looking for ways to add spontaneous communication, such as short video interactions, to re-create real-time conversations.

“When you can see the other person, you feel like you’re more familiar with them, as opposed to just reading some text from them,” he says.” That’s not to say that you should just go interrupting everyone with video calls. It’s good sometimes to send a quick instant message beforehand, saying, ‘Hey, are you available to talk?’”

The Advantage of Virtual Communication

As we become more adept at virtual communication, our experiences are likely to start mirroring in-person interaction. While it may feel like out of sight is out of mind, Brodsky says it’s possible to build stronger relationships remotely when you are intentional about virtual communication.

“There’s nothing particularly magical about being able to touch the person in front of you,” he says. “It’s a lot easier to send a quick text to someone saying, ‘Hey, how are you doing? What’s been going on?’ Virtual tools can strengthen relationships because they increase the frequency of interactions, and the frequency of interactions is one of the main predictors of what creates strong, long-lasting, trusting relationships.”