In an increasingly connected world, communication has become king.
Actually it goes beyond simple communication. We’re in the age of instant communication, where messages that aren’t replied to within minutes are grounds for pestering follow-ups and questioning the recipient’s reliability.
It makes one wonder just how patient and thorough our ancestors were. A message sent across an ocean took months to get to the recipient and months to get back, and that’s with the off-chance the ship transporting the message actually survived. The messages must have also been extremely detailed, too, seeing as the last thing you’d want to do is forget a detail and have to send a follow-up that was halfway across the Atlantic.
I can imagine it now. A British general asks a higher-ranking officer in England what to do about agitated colonials contemplating war, receives a message 3 months later to ignore it, and then 3 months later another message comes in saying, “You should probably stifle that”, only for an all-out war to be in its opening throes.
No, communication was not kind to sudden changes. Fortunately we’ve evolved and the improvement and accessibility of communication has become a priority. Now sudden changes of thought and perspective can be delivered on a whim, rather than on a ship that may or may not leave your message at the bottom of the ocean.
Communities across the world are now on a path of discovery sharing never-before-learned information about cultures, lifestyles, and ideas. It has its obvious benefits for relationship purposes, but instant communication over short and large distances has become an absolute necessity to the office.
That’s where Slack has excelled. This platform, which you may have learned about from their innovative, visually-appealing commercials, has delivered our office with instantaneous and organized messaging that has made us all the more efficient and connected.
Naturally there is an area where you’re able to send direct messages to co-workers. However, where Slack really separates itself is its community-building by allowing users to create channels made for specific projects.
For instance, on our version of Slack, we have a channel for each client where we discuss projects and easily upload documents. If we need to get someone’s attention, we use the ‘@’ sign and they’re alerted via flashing from the website’s tab. The same is done for any direct message.
Channels can even be locked to prevent others from finding them. You know, in case any employees out there need a chat room to vent about work.
What’s even more impressive about this platform is how you can add a specific image to appear in a channel whenever a certain word or phrase is uttered. There is also an extensive (And I mean EXTENSIVE) catalog of emojis that liven up conversations. As efficient as Slack is, these emojis can derail a day’s worth of work.
Nevertheless, it’s these little details that separate Slack from pretty much every other social platform I’ve come across and used at work.
The communicative possibilities stretch as far as your imagination can. We’ve set up channels for clients, general information about work, and even one devoted to Game of Thrones, which is perfect for non-watchers to avoid hearing about the show and for watchers who missed a recent episode to avoid spoilers.
You can even have different companies set up through Slack even if you’re using the same account!
Our productivity and efficiency can’t be quantified, but anybody who works here can tell you how Slack has been an absolute benefit to their work life. Its wide-ranging communicative capabilities have made information-sharing, urgent or not, a far more enjoyable and efficient experience.
