Optimizing Team Collaboration: Choosing the Right Communication Tools (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: As a manager, you need to decide what you and your team can do to become a highly efficient, highly effective team. You can start by picking the right tools for facilitating team collaboration. Many projects, especially those with complex and creative tasks, need day-to-day or even multiple daily team interactions to ensure the team is working as a unit. The virtual work environment is shaped by the combination of communication tools used to share information and documents, give and receive feedback, brainstorm, make decisions, and share knowledge. As a result, one of the most important decisions you have to make is which technology tools, or a combination of them, your team uses to effectively meet your team's needs. Have you ever been on a conference call when the other side goes quiet? You start to wonder, are they still there? Are they angry? Did we get cut off? Remove the guesswork by simulating a face-to-face experience using video conferencing instead of audio-only calls. Being able to read participants' body language makes the conversation that much easier. Another good practice is combining conference calls with webinars. Webinars using programs like WebEx, JoinMe, GoToMeeting, and Huddle allow adding visuals to the conference, allowing you to share presentations or documents with participants. Don't be daunted by all the available communication tools. Let the task at hand guide you in your choice of technology. Start by thinking about the nature of the task. How many features does the task need? And how many users must be accommodated at the same time? Then consider the timing. Do team members need immediate answers, or can there be a delay? And finally, what's the social context? Is your goal better suited to a meeting where team members can interact? Or is written communication enough? Communication tools fall into two basic categories, synchronous and asynchronous. Synchronous communication makes it possible for team members to interact in real-time by communicating at the same time using the same method. Examples of synchronous tools are telephone communication, IM, and video conferencing. These are solid tools to use for time-sensitive, creative, and personal communication. Asynchronous communication, on the other hand, happens outside of real-time. Communication and teamwork is a back-and-forth exchange, usually done in writing at different times by team members. Use asynchronous tools like email, discussion boards, and cloud or file sharing and team collaboration tools such as Basecamp, Trello, and Jira when issues aren't time-sensitive. They are designed for simple text communication, threaded team discussions, and sending file-based information. No one tool will fit every need. Carefully consider your objectives to guide your decision on what tool to use to optimize your team's collaboration.