Beyond Buzzwords: Adding Heart to Effective Slack Communication
Summary
Key Insights
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Humans have communicated mostly face-to-face for 99.87% of our history, making asynchronous screen communication a relatively new challenge.
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Over 70% of communication effectiveness comes from nonverbal cues like tone and body language, largely missing in async messages.
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Meaningful communication in async channels supports individual and team resilience by fostering trust and connection.
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Effective async messages clearly state the audience, purpose, and required action to reduce recipients' cognitive load.
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Too many calls to action can reduce clarity; limiting to about three key actions is recommended.
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Tailoring message tone and format based on audience size (one-to-one, one-to-many) and sender seniority improves reception.
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Using Slack features like emojis, gifs, Slack clips, and block kits can restore some lost nonverbal communication in async text.
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Staggering message sends and reducing message volume helps prevent information overload and improves engagement.
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Human-centered communications without calls to action still boost social connection and work culture.
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AI tools can aid drafting and polishing messages but require human editing to maintain authentic voice and intent.
Notable Quotes
"You can have the greatest idea in the world, but if you can't connect with other people, nothing will come of it."
"The words we use should enable clear paths of understanding so recipients know their role, what to do next, and why both easily and quickly."
"The vast majority of what makes up meaningful human communication is harder for us to access screen to screen."
"Social pain affects the nervous system in the exact same way as physical pain."
"Every time we communicate, we are sharing in that basic need for human connection."
"Make sure you clearly define who your message applies to so your audience can quickly scan and recognize relevance."
"The bigger the impact, the higher the title that should send the message."
"Slack clips can add tone and body language that is too hard to capture in the written word."
"Short links are a great way to quantify engagement and understand which calls to action are working."
"Communication is nourishment for you and your teams, not just sustenance."
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