The Tool That Revolutionized Our Team Communication

There are too many communication tools out there to count—WhatsApp, text, email, Teams, Skype, Telegram, Zoho—but I can say that none of them have had the same impact on our business communications as Slack has. 

Not only does Slack have amazing integrations and tools that help us streamline tons of moving pieces, but starting at Eastern Union and now at GPARENCY, we’ve also learned some great processes and systems for how to apply them for an organization our size. We’re at 70+ employees and counting!

If you’re thinking about making the switch or looking to improve your communication flow, here is how our team at GPARENCY is using Slack to manage a fully remote team in addition to outside vendor relationships.

1. We Keep Everything in One Place 

My biggest issue with other communication platforms was that they always lacked something, which meant we juggled multiple methods. When I was trying to track down a piece of information, I couldn’t remember where the conversation happened.

99.9% of our team communication happens over Slack, not email.

Slack combines what’s great about email, text, and WhatsApp in one place, and makes it even easier and more organized so we don’t have to rely on anything else for internal communication. Too many communication platforms mix your work and personal life together, offering more personal distractions when you’re working and more work distractions when you’re off. Slack is focused.

Instead of long, blocky emails, we can communicate conversationally like we would in an office. And instead of every reply coming through as an entirely separate message like text or WhatsApp, you can reply in a “thread” (pictured below) so people can quickly find the relevant conversations and skip the ones that aren’t.  

Pashut. In Hebrew, that means simple. The fewer platforms you’re using, the easier life gets. We encourage our team to only use email or text when it’s truly necessary. If they didn’t offer one other feature, simply having all of your conversations in one searchable place is enough to make the switch!

2. We Take Advantage of the Fluidity of Slack

On WhatsApp, another platform I have used heavily, you can create group conversations, but when you add someone new to the conversation, they can’t see any of the previous message histories. On Slack, we frequently add someone to a Slack channel just to join for a pertinent conversation, then we can remove them again once it’s done. For example, if someone needs to book a time with me, I’ll add the person who manages my calendar to the channel so he can coordinate, and then I can easily remove him again once it’s done. He can see the request in the message history, so I don’t have to spend time catching him up.

3. We Organize Conversations By Two Things: Teams and Projects

One of the most radical changes was the exodus from email threads to project-based chat channels. The best way to think of Slack is to imagine the logistics of a group text message (that you can do from your computer), but you can organize these conversations by topic and adjust the people who have access at any point. On any given day, you might have ten simultaneous conversations going, neatly organized by team or project.

At GPARENCY, whenever we have a new project that demands a lot of back and forth, we create a Slack thread centered around that project to put all of the conversations in one place, with every team member across departments actively involved. If someone completes their portion of the project, we can remove them from the thread. If a new person is needed, we can easily add them. For each individual team, they also have their own Slack channel for communication.

Lastly, we have a few company-wide channels for big announcements that we want to share with everyone. 

4. Take Advantage of Voicenotes 

Have you ever called a team member, had a great idea on the call, and then realized the rest of the team missed the conversation? Now, you start the phone parade of calling up each team member to fill them in. 

One of my favorite features on Slack is the ability to record voice notes and send them on conversation threads, allowing us to accomplish a similar effect to a phone call. The best part is, everyone on the thread (people who are involved in the project) can access it—this not only saves you a phone call, but it keeps more people in the loop. They can also download it and listen to it repeatedly (or share with their team) so no information is lost.

5. Add Your Business Vendors to Slack

For more involved business vendors, we work with them directly in Slack so communication flows seamlessly as if they were our in-house team. If a business you work with also has Slack, or if they’re willing to join, I strongly encourage bringing as much conversation as possible to Slack so you’re continuing to reduce your need for other platforms. 

6. Private DM Only When Necessary 

You can send direct messages to one or multiple people on Slack, but we try to be cautious about using this feature. The amazing part of Slack is the ability to keep people in the loop without bogging them down with irrelevant meetings or emails. Not all conversations should be public, but if the information isn’t sensitive, I do encourage our team that it’s better to have discussions in one of the main channels to get the full benefit of Slack.

If you’re looking for a way to get your team on the same page and unify silos in your business, I can’t recommend Slack enough. Change isn’t always easy, especially when it comes to moving your team to a new platform, but it’s the only way to get a different result. Our communication still isn’t perfect, but I can confidently say that we wouldn’t be able to do what we’re doing today without the communication tools Slack gives us.

Have you tried Slack? What was your experience?