ommunication Modes
Let’s start by covering the two most common modes of communication for operations: email and meetings. Communicating via email
Before sending that email to the entire organization, who really needs to know the information? People already get a lot of email; for most it is information overload. How many of customers already complain about too many emails? Don’t get filtered, Make communication count.
Here are some best practices when using email to communicate:
Shorter is better.
Make the subject descriptive (e.g. “www.co.com outage, May 10 - 6-8 pm”)
Put the most important information at the top of the message (e.g. deadline, action, outage dates). People generally skim the first few lines to determine if the information pertains to them. Starting with a lengthy background risks alienating people before they read the important part of the message.
State the audience at the top of the email (e.g. “All Macintosh Users”) to let them know the message is directed at them.
Consider including a link to an internal site with a lengthier writeup if needed.
Limit the recipient list to only those people who need or want the information (management, administrative customers, developers, people impacted.). Build a list if necessary to avoid spamming the entire organization.
Sometimes email is the best way to communicate and sometimes not. Decide when to use email and when to communicate another way.
Consider email appropriate in some situations:
Attemping to reach a large audience
The message or action is simple
The message needs to reach them now
Need to document the distribution of the information.
Following up on a previous conversation, request, or action
Consider email less effective in other situations:
Conversing back-and-forth with people to define or understand a complex issue
Creating something new
Drawing it on a whiteboard would provide better enlightenment
There is a potential for much confusion or questions about the issue
Asking for a management decision on a technical issue from non-technical management
Trying to teach people
Sometimes email can be used in combination with other methods:
After a meeting, send an email to the attendees to summarize action items or decisions. This can be an important tool to remind management of a decision made months earlier.
Announce the time and location of a seminar or training class.
Share status of an action taken as the result of a discussion or meeting.
Some common effective uses of email include the following:
Notification of outages
Warn of IT security threats (e.g. raise awareness of increased phishing attacks)
Document a decision made by management in a meeting.
Document the outcome of actions taken
Provide status on previous assignments
Announce training, seminars, and presentations by operations
Provide customers with a link to access a new or modified service
The dreaded meeting
If customers think they get too much email, some of them also think they also attend too many meetings. Some people, especially managers, have corporate calendars that resemble a tetris game. Coordinating an effective and productive meeting follows a simple formula.
Have a purpose. Need a decision? Need a decision now? Need to inform? Need need to persuade?
Be prepared! Consider audience and be prepared to answer questions relevant to their interest in the topic. Some of this is covered in more depth at the Soft Skills 201 level.
Communicate at the right level. Leave out technical jargon if meeting with a non-technical audience. Consider simplified explanations, diagrams, and framing the content to address concerns that the audience cares about. Operations is the translator of technical information when meeting with a non-technical audience. Take that role seriously.
Set a duration. Decide how much time is needed to present the topic and answer questions. Make it as short as possible. Some organizations default all meetings to one hour.
Consider what the audience gets out of the meeting. Should the audience increase their knowledge or understanding on the topic? Maybe they have no interest in the topic but are the final decision maker due to funding levels, type of money, policy, role within the organization, or other factors.
Stick to the agenda. Do not let the audience take the meeting off course. In a 1:1 meeting, the audience might ask for IT support for an unrelated problem. Agree to put someone on the problem after the meeting, then go return to the scheduled topic. In a larger meeting, audiences can tangent into related areas or even unrelated areas. Be prepared to steer the meeting back on topic.
Summarize Summarize the outcome in the last few minutes of the meeting. It can be good to send an email to summarize decisions made in the meeting in order to document the outcome. Required meetings
Sometimes attendees are mandated to attend meetings:
Committees where members are selected by the organization to represent a subset of people. Committees are often too large and unproductive. The saying “languishing in committee” describes this cultural phenomenon.
Management meetings where all members of a management team are required to meet at regular intervals to review topics that may or may not be relevant to everyone in the room.
Training where all employees of an organization are required to complete a minimum set of hours on a particular topic.
The operations person tasked with leading one of these types of meetings may find a less than enthusiastic audience. Apply the best practices above and attempt to make these meetings productive. Even without being the chairperson, sometimes keeping a meeting on topic and looking for areas to be productive can reduce inefficiencies. Alternative meeting styles
Meetings do not always require scheduling a conference room for an hour or more and everyone arriving with a laptop or a legal pad. Consider stand up meetings or even short 10-minute slots on a manager’s calendar to provide a quick status update or respond to a question that is best answered in person.