If you work in a marketing department or advertising agency, you understand exactly why effective communication is important in the workplace. If team members aren’t actively working on ways to improve communication skills, projects aren’t going to go well – it’s as simple as that. But so often, communication can fall apart if it’s not kept a priority. On the flip side, if you’re communicating well with your team members, efficiencies and productivity levels will be elevated.
If this is all too familiar to you, it’s time to read up on ways to create effective communication that helps streamline processes and meetings, while also increasing general team productivity.
- Use your project management tools (the right way). I caught up with one of Quattro’s Project Managers, Halee Musho, and asked what she thinks is the number-one way an agency or marketing department can improve efficiencies. “Use the project management tool. It’s as easy as utilizing the tool your organization provides you with and using it the right way.” Set aside the time to understand how the tool works so that you can be a part of the communication solution.
- Set meeting intentions. If you’ve organized a meeting that’s taking place, take the lead and create an agenda. Don’t walk in without a firm grasp on what your intention is for that meeting. If you’ve called everyone together, you want to make the most of their time – and you’re most likely going to hear about it if you feel like you wasted it. When you send out the meeting invite, write up a clear description as to what you want to accomplish so that everyone’s on the right page from the get-go. At the end of the meeting, define next steps and everyone’s roles and responsibilities so that you don’t have to do it twice.
- Put the email down. Sometimes we’re so rooted to our desks that it can actually be a detriment. If you’re writing an explanatory email and it’s getting longer and longer, walk over to his/her desk and work it out in person.
- Another interesting fact: Recent studies show that one in five emails include a recipient who was copied unnecessarily. Take a hard a look at whom it is you’re sending your emails to and make sure that it’s informational for all recipients.
- If you’re a perpetually late person (I get it – some people just are!), set alerts for yourself that you can’t ignore. This way, you’ll get to where you need to be on time without forcing your peers to wait around for you and potentially take away from their own time. This will improve productivity across the board.
And last, but certainly not least…
- Be a leader. If you see that there are huge gaps in your organization’s efficiencies, whether that’s in a meeting or just in general, help figure it out. It impacts everyone and could potentially be impacting the work you’re doing, so the sooner everyone gets on the same page with communication tactics and efficiencies, the sooner it can be remedied.
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You’ve got the tips, now it’s time to start implementing them. Let us know how they’ve worked for you by tweeting us at @QuattroPhilly!