MultitaskingEarlier this week I got an email from a co-worker expressing  exasperation at the proliferation of communication and collaboration tools he is being asked to use. It got me thinking about how much effort I’ve invested in streamlining my systems. I’m the kind of person that naturally invests in systems up front, who cleans dishes as I cook, and who reaches for Plan B with glee and without pause. To be clear I relish being able to pull out Plan B because it’s all too frequent that I/we don’t have one. So when I got his email I felt his pain.

People are increasingly tying their lives together with freely accessible and low cost tech solutions. It usually starts with Google Drive then moves to free cloud storage solutions and then to other apps integrated with those services. Case in point, I use three separate free cloud storage solutions as repositories for other apps I use (including the one running this site :-). Unfortunately,  many people work at companies that rely on legacy systems which purport to offer “enterprise” level security  but which have fallen behind from a feature and UX perspective. Let’s face it, while security is becoming more and more important the weakest link is still  the people that use it. It’s a tough situation to which there isn’t a simple answer. I’m not going to solve this in the next 100 words, so I’ll share what’s helped me deal with it instead.

My colleague is getting caught in the middle because he’s tasted the awesomeness of contemporary  consumer solutions but lives in a world in which legacy systems still dominate. So he gets caught straddling the fence and that’s awkward and potentially very painful (did I mention that it’s a picket fence designed to keep people out?). In an effort to help, I wrote up a short protocol that I follow. First off, accept that you’re not going to be optimally efficient. That bit is harder for me to accept than it should be, but whatever. The key is to be as efficient as you can be while accepting the constraints you’re working under. Here’s how I approach communication/collaboration:

  • Assign – I’m listing this one first because if done correctly you can significantly reduce the use of all of the things listed below. Whatever task management solution you use (hopefully one that is collaborative) assign things to people with detailed instructions. Be clear about the requirements, dependencies, deadlines, etc. And break things down in to granular bits. If your colleagues don’t use the system that you’re using either decide to translate tasks into your system and eat the overhead, or set up firewalls between projects and use their systems for shared projects. If there are more than two systems in place you should assign a task to yourself to eliminate one of those systems or you should quit. One of my biggest irritations today is that there is not enough good training out there on how to use task management systems. I might offer a class on Google Helpouts to address this.
  • Email – If you need a thoughtful written response send an email. Expect that it’s going to take at least a day to come back. If it comes back sooner count yourself lucky. Note, most good task management systems will create emails on your behalf based on tasks that you assign or comment on. If you do it right a personal email indicates that you’re asking for something that goes beyond a task.
  • IM/Chat – If you have a quick question that I’ll know instantly but that might take you 5x as long to find, try me. Good for a quick status check or to see if I can take a call. It’s also useful as a back-channel while in meetings and on conference calls. Don’t rely on chat, if it works count yourself lucky.
  • Video Call – I think this is an under utilized resource that is excellent for hard and/or personal and/or important conversations that must be had remotely. These should be scheduled or at the very least you should IM/Chat before calling. I also find that bouncing between screen sharing, document sharing, and video can add lots of value to remote brainstorming/collaboration.
  • Shared Calendar – This is a must and thankfully most legacy systems are compatible with contemporary ones. Grab time on peoples’ calendars but don’t take more time than you need and always, always, always have an agenda. Please. If you calendars don’t sync at least publish yours to a webpage.
  • Call – I’m guilty of this sometimes, but I don’t think you should call me unless we have an appointment on the calendar. That is unless it’s really urgent in which case you should text me first. That is unless something is actually on fire in which case you should call me while searching for a fire extinguisher.
  • Wikis – Unless you have dedicated page owners (and most companies don’t) don’t use them. Shared docs are better and more useful in my opinion.

One last thought (let me contradict myself just a bit) with contemporary solutions I don’t actually think that the overhead associated with switching between solutions is as bad as people feel that it is. I’ve got three video conferencing solutions that are all a click away. The best takes 15 seconds to launch and the worst takes 5 minutes. I’ve got at least three ways to make a voice call. If you really want to make things the best they can be focus on the task management because that’s where you’ll find the most overhead in my view. I hope that helps.

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