Your FLOCK’s Monday Meeting- Be Conscious of Your Communication!
Today is an exciting day for FLOCK as our CEO Michal returns to work from being on furlough. COV-19 has added pressure on many remote working teams- as you can imagine it hasn’t been ideal for us without Michal. But, we have managed and adapted like every other work team. One positive FLOCK can take from the sudden remote lifestyle, is our new-found ability to communicate and collaborate effectively. Collaboration is one of the FLOCK company values, so communication is something we LOVE to talk about!
FLOCK and How it Can Transform The Way You Communicate
Your FLOCK is a SaaS platform that helps grow your company culture by using data and science to analyse values and the cultural alignment of individuals. Of course, we practise what we preach! All of the FLOCK team have completed the test. So now we have our own value-map which we can overlap with each other to visualise similarities or differences in values. This has changed the way we communicate for the better.
This is mine and FLOCK’s value-map’s over lapped with each other. As you can see there are many similarities (recognition, persona growth, results focus, adaptbility and teamwork) making myself a good fit for the team. On the other hand there are differences (my values are more caring and detail-orientated) which can be seen as positive- bringing a new set of qualities to the team. Plus, it encourages the team to tailor their communication in terms of being more caring where possible.
Top Tips for a Great Communication Approach
There is never going to be a collective mind-set within a company as each individual holds a different set of values. Although, you may be able to compromise the way you communicate by considering these three qualities of what FLOCK defines as a good communication approach:
- Speed
- simplicity
- Transparency
Research by The Remote Working Pros (2020) recently found that communicating effectively was one of the top problems employees faced in a remote workplace. And due to COV-19, there has been a recent surge in the amount of communication tools exercised by teams but “overuse can then lead to them becoming counter-productive”. Therefore, it is important to find the appropriate tool for your team and stick to it! At FLOCK, we use Google Meet. We have no complaints so far.
Simple and Speedy Communication
You also need to be conscious of the speed of your communication. Keep meetings short and sweet to keep engagement levels high. In the words of Leonardo DiVinci ‘Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.’ Human beings only have a limited attention span of 10-18 minutes during a meeting. Brendon Burchard, the author of High Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way, says
“high performers need clarity.”
But, Who doesn’t?!
It’s not uncommon to finish a meeting and think to yourself, what was the purpose? According to an article posted in Entrepreneur Europe only
“46% of employees rarely or never leave a meeting knowing what they’re supposed to do.”
which is not surprising! And a reason why we have listed speed and simplicity in our top 3 communication approaches. The key here is to have a clear meeting agenda. It is always helpful to prepare short bullet points of key information you intend to deliver. It will encourage structure and you to not go off on tangents.
Transparent Communication
Finally, let’s talk about transparency working from home. Transparency means communicating openly and honestly with your team members and cultivating a culture where information can flow freely between people and teams. Now, information may not be moving as freely as it used to in the office but it definitely can be honest. We are currently in a crisis filled with uncertainty, which can disrupt employee mental well-being and productivity. How many of you are tired of the generic “Thank you for your patience during this difficult time” ‘holding’ email for actual information? Is this necessary? We need clear, transparent facts and updates.
Benefits of transparent communication include:
- Trust between employer and employees
- Increased morale
- Reduced stress
- Increased performance and engagement
These all contribute to creating a happy work culture! For further reading Glassdoor posted a great blog “Transparency in the Workplace: Why It Matters and How to Practice It”.
About FLOCK
FLOCK is an online tool that helps businesses investigate and understand their remote workers. To help people, business owners and HR managers support individuals to create more productive teams whilst working from home. Find out more at www.yourflock.co.uk.
FLOCK Free Trail
Finally, if you sign up to FLOCK by the end of June you will receive 10 FREE Value Profiles for your remote team.
https://yourflock.co.uk/app/pick-survey/9570b68f8cbbf6bedc2e32f26585d184
