Team Communication

A business is built upon its team members and their qualities. Thus, it is very important for the business that its team members are able to communicate efficiently and effectively. In order to achieve this, a business must be mindful of the relatively simple logistics of communication as well as the more advanced nuances of communication like idea generation, conflict resolution and leadership.

At Olin sofTee, we decided that using the internet would be the most efficient and effective way of solving the logistics problem. We firstly set up a meeting time every week outside of our stipulated board meetings. These meetings served as a deadline for a week’s work as well as a simple way to communicate what each of us had done that week and had to do the following week. In addition to the meetings, we set up email lists that allowed us to send emails directly to every member of the business. This archived email thread helped us keep track of any important documents, communicate information at the blink of an eye and be allowed us to reach the whole group at once. Lastly, our group also heavily utilized an amazing product called Google Docs™. Google Docs™ allows many team members to work on the same document at the same time. This enabled us to generate ideas on the fly and discuss it without physically having to meet each other. Thus, using these simple tools, we were able to ensure that our simple logistics of communication were taken care off.

Moving on to the more advanced aspects of team communication, we realize that every team will have members that think differently, have different work ethics, schedules and workloads. Formulating a method to circumvent these problems is of utmost value in ensuring the progress of any business. Most teams of any sort usually face the problem of idea conflicts due to miscommunication. (One member of the team thinks their idea is better than another without knowing all the facts) Idea conflicts waste an immense amount of time and provide little if any value.

The way we dealt with this problem was to initiate any idea on the mailing list. Having to write down an idea in words forces a person to think carefully and fully articulate the idea before communicating it. This helps the others in the group understand the idea better and faster, while reducing the time spent in physical meetings simply clarifying the idea.

Thus, we see that communication is a very integral and important part in any business. Furthermore, getting the right tools and utilizing them in the right ways can help the team work much better, faster and more efficiently.