It’s day 4 of my Advent Calendar and today I’m going to be sharing the TEA technique to create clarity in your communications with your team.  I took a picture of some of the variety of teas I have in my cupboard because there are so many to choose from and I think this is the case for communications too.   When I was doing the research for this project communication came up time and time again.

Although technology has helped us to connect across the world, it’s also made it difficult to know what messaging is right to use, when.  How many us have loads of emails on a daily basis?   It’s tough to keep up with everything and have a clear understanding of what is happening where and when especially when we’re working remotely.

So I’ve boiled it down to three things to remember – Timescales, Engagement and Activity.

When I’m thinking about timescales, I’m wondering when you’re communicating with people?  Do you have a regular morning slot when you expect people to be available.  Are there communications that get sent out on a timetabled basis eg daily, weekly, monthly basis

Where the engagement is concerned, you need to be thinking about what it is you want your audience to do with the information once they receive it?  Are you making it easy for them to understand for example if it’s an email do you use the subject line effectively?  Do you tell the reader whether the message is for action, info etc?  If it’s a meeting you’re all in, what are you doing to make sure it’s not just you on transmit?!  And if it’s a video call, do you try to get everyone to have their cameras on so that they can feel more engaged with the team?

And finally where the activity is concerned how do you decide which media is best for each situation?  If you have your regular meetings set up, is it best to use instant messaging, SLACK or whatsapp for example to send a quick update?  Would it be better to pick up the phone and have a chat instead of sending an email if you think the messages are going to ping pong backwards and forwards.

If you haven’t had these conversations with your team already, setting these kind of ground rules can resolve a lot of uncertainties in the team.