Effective communication is the cornerstone of any sustainable relationship — at home or in the workplace.
From cave paintings in 30,000 BCE to the first alphabet in the 16th century BCE to the printing press in 1450 to the Internet in the 20th century to smartphones of today, communication has come a long (long) way in 32,000+ years.
During that period, humans have communicated through petroglyphs (carvings into rocks), pictograms (illustrated symbols), telegraph, telephone, radio, fax, and computers.
Fast forward to the 2020s, and our communication methods are seemingly boundless.
Since the advent of the Internet in the late 20th century, there has been an explosion of tools and technology that have allowed humans to communicate faster (in real-time) and more often (all the time!) and to more people (think: Twitter broadcast) than ever before.
With the push of the “send” button on a device, a message can be pushed out to billions of individuals in a matter of seconds. Powerful.
But there is not just one single way to communicate.
What are the four types of communication?
When we think about communication, we often envision verbal communication, yet that’s just one of the four primary communication forms. The others include:
- Verbal
- Nonverbal
- Written
- Visual
All four play a critical role in workplace communication. Let’s break each one down:
Nonverbal communication: Communicating without words. These types of communications can include facial expressions (smile, frown, grimace, grin, etc. — think emoji smileys), gestures (tilted head, stroking chin, rubbing hands, etc.), paralinguistics (i.e., loudness or tone of voice), body language, and so on.
Written communication: Messages that make use of the written word. Examples include memos, reports, manuals, contracts, news releases, emails, text messages, in-app notes, instant messages, etc.
Visual communication: Sharing ideas and information in forms that can be seen. Infographics come to mind first, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Visual communication includes process diagrams, flow charts, presentations, mind maps, roadmaps … and timelines, Kanban boards, Gantt charts, calendar views (i.e., everything monday.com offers).
Verbal communication: Using words to share information with other people. Whether it’s whispering, shouting, using your inside or outside voice, verbal communication is the spoken word. Verbal communication is talking.
In every single workday, all four forms of communication are used, sometimes all in one conversation.
For example, you send a coworker an email (written) asking them to help with a project. Instead of replying to the email, your coworker walks over to your desk and says, with a smile (nonverbal), “I’d be happy to help you!” (verbal) while sharing the flowchart they created to map out the project (visual).
The examples are endless.
How is communication in the workplace different?
Communication: a verbal, non-verbal, written, or visual message between individuals or groups of people.
Communication in the workplace: a verbal, non-verbal, written, or visual message between individuals or groups of people while at work.But even that definition is a bit fuzzy when you consider “at work,” considering more teams are working remotely and the line between “work hours” and “non-work hours” is blurred. Thanks to smart devices, apps, and constant alerts, many employees are “on” just about every day of the week and at all (non-sleeping) times!
So maybe a better definition of communication in the workplace is “a verbal, non-verbal, written, or visual message between individuals or groups of people within an organization.”
But communication in the workplace — thanks to more technology options — can take on a bit of a different flavor than your standard “at home/personal” communication means.
How do we communicate in the workplace?
Email. Phone. FaceTime. Zoom. IM. Chat. In-app messaging. Facebook messenger. LinkedIn messaging. Face to face. Slack.
The list of how we communicate in the workplace is endless. It’s also often messy and random and disjointed.
To complicate our “at work” communication methods, personal and professional interactions are no longer “just at work” or “just at home.” Thanks to the Internet and our smartphones, how we engage and who we engage with blends together.
Within a 5-minute block of “work time,” it’s possible — and quite likely — that an employee will toggle between work and personal communications. A phone conversation with a spouse can be followed by an email to a coworker, followed by a video conference with a team member, followed by a quick reply on Facebook.
And don’t forget much of the above can happen at the same time (the good/bad/meh of multi-tasking).
However, just because we all communicate in the workplace doesn’t mean we all communicate effectively.
What does good communication in the workplace look like, and why is it so important?
Good communication is essential to a well-run, efficient organization, and “the best leaders know how to communicate clearly and persuasively” (Harvard Business Review).
And many (many) books have been written about how to communicate — an Amazon book search for “effective communication” returns over 100,000 results. Harvard Business Review (HBR) believes so strongly in the topic, it’s dedicated one of its “HBR’s 10 Must Reads” series to the topic (See: On Communication).
At monday.com, we believe that a lack of team communication is a huge obstacle and can have a negative impact on your team.
Good workplace communication helps to avoid confusion, provide project purpose, and builds a positive corporate culture. It also:
- Creates a sense of accountability and ownership:
- Ensures teams truly work as teams, not a group of individuals:
- Leverages transparency to build motivation:
- Empowers teams to face difficulties together
Workplace communication gets a bit trickier in a remote environment.
Communication in a remote work environment
2020, amongst other things, was the year of remote work.
We learned — sometimes willingly, other times with much resistance — how to succeed in a fully “work from home” environment. For many organizations, this was “business as usual” as they already had a portion of their workforce working remotely. For other companies, the transition to an entirely virtual organization was a complete 180 in how their teams operated.
Either way, we did it — we are doing it. And while it’s likely more organizations will return to in-office/in-person, it’s also quite likely many will remain at least partially remote.
So what does communication in a remote workplace look like?
First, a definition. Remote communication, sometimes referred to as “virtual communication,” is a means of communicating at a distance via electronic tools that let you correspond with people outside of face-to-face communication.
Tools include phone calls, emails, video conferencing, online chats, and Work OS solutions (like monday.com, of course).
We wrote about how to master virtual meetings and other types of remote communication in this blog post.
Speaking of virtual meetings, be careful not to lean too heavily on them. In this article, we break down five ways to effectively communicate in a virtual world without meeting after meeting after meeting.
1. Use different virtual communication tools: streamline remote communication by choosing the best channels for the various communication types. Quick question? Try Slack or chat. Nothing urgent? Use email.
2. Hone your remote communication skills: We call this one “virtual communication etiquette” — not a skill you learn overnight. Effective leaders lead by example.
3. Create visible accountability with in-context team communication: This is what monday.com is all about. Our Work OS helps teams organize project boards for seamless collaboration on cross-functional projects without disturbing each other’s workflow.
4. Identify the advantages and disadvantages of remote communication: Virtual meetings are not merely in-person meetings over a video conference. There are many differences (some better, some not as good). Learning the similarities and differences is critical to an effective virtual communication experience.
5. Keep adjusting your strategy: Improving virtual communication is not a one-and-done exercise. It takes practice and patience … and patience … and patience.
How to use monday.com to improve team communication
One of the most useful features of monday.com is the ability for teams to effectively collaborate and communicate.
With our Work OS, teams can easily assign and prioritize tasks, set clear ownership, share files, and see who is doing what anywhere, anytime. Our visual boards keep everyone up to date and working towards the same goals. Friction-free collaboration FTW!
See for yourself. Get started by signing up for monday.com now.
