From LOL to ROI: Cracking the Code of Effective Online Communication

Welcome to Two Minds today! In the dynamic realm of online work, mastering effective virtual communication is paramount for success and productivity. Join us as in this episode as we delve into three vital aspects that can enhance and up your online work dynamics. 

First, we unravel the significance of concise communication, where the art of conveying ideas simply and concisely can make all the difference in grabbing attention. 

Next, we uncover the transformative power of personal introductions, setting the stage for not just connections, but lasting relationships in the digital sphere. 

Lastly, we expertly navigate the intricacies of seamless time zone synchronization, a crucial skill for fostering successful remote collaboration across global borders. 

Get ready to elevate and enhance your online work prowess with insights that truly matter for today's interconnected world!

Transcript

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[Music]
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welcome to two minds today with your
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host Charlene Authority in leadership
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development and Hal an expert Community
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Builder the Pod all about best practices
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to get you notic and ahead in your
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professional life
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hello hello hello how you doing Charlene
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I'm good how are you doing I'm good
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thank you it's beautiful summer week huh
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uh yeah actually I think we can go
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outside this week where I am so that's
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pretty
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good it is it's been under 115 so that's
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awesome oh my God you know like
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productivity is actually much lower in
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high heat oh it's an actual scientific
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fact your body operates at 30% less
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productive capacity what about like on
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fact of the day what about like super
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cold
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climates um that's a good question I
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don't I that's a good question question
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I don't know I'm not gonna like say but
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like physiologically our body slows down
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at high Heats because energy needs to go
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to allow your your physical body to
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survive so your heartbeat changes like
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goes inside so you're actually less
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efficient less accurate your
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productivity is less I'm gonna look into
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cold I'm gonna look into the cold look
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into it my kids have a podcast that was
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talking about the slowest animals and it
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was essentially because they needed to
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conserve as much energy as possible
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um so in conserving today let's talk
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about a little bit of efficiency
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Effectiveness um last week we ended off
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talking about slack and we thought what
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a great transition to really sort of
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dive in so today we are from LOL to Roi
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cracking the code of effective online
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communication let's do it Charlene let's
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do it all right starting us off why
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don't you start us off sure the most
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important thing I think when it comes to
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online communication is being concise
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and not going and I think like people
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have a tough time doing that because a
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lot of times people think you're online
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you're either in written form or you're
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doing a video that's been pre-recorded
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so you feel like you could just run off
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your mouth and keep going and writing
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and typing and it's super especially a
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lot of times I think people feel
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uncomfortable in person so they think
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that when it comes to the online mode
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let me write down absolutely everything
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that's in my mind and then some and I
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don't really think that's so effective
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one of our first podcast episodes was
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talking about that hope this finds you
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well or in this trying times right that
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was like three years ago which is wild
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in it in it of itself and I always
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always struggle with the balance of
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efficiency and kindness right where I
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think I think we are definitely in a
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mode where we want to transmit as much
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empathy as possible and at the same time
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like like get to your point right and I
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and I think this actually is the perfect
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thing that picks up on our last
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conversation right if you have you have
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a little bit more wiggle room in an
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email but also keep it concise lower it
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down use bullet points that's something
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that I always pull back to I'm like
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nobody's reading this I don't know H if
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you've ever tested grammarly but
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grammarly now has a feature that it's
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like is this your main point
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and um if your main point is not
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highlighted then you're doing too much
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and you need to restructure um often
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start with the with your main point at
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this top like I think we're almost
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conditioned to to do all the Fluffy and
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then the ask and it doesn't translate
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into
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email I also think that people are so
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incredibly busy these days and we have
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so much coming at us that we can't focus
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on on anything that's longer than three
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lines you know and I go beyond bullet
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points I always like to number because
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that keeps people going and please don't
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have more than three four or five like
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that's it like that's that's the max
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that anybody can really focus so I the
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other piece of it is as an attorney I do
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think that it's important like less is
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more you do have to cover your behind
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right like that's important so if you
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want to give the bullet point but don't
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go into details and people like
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the more you write the more people have
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the ability to kind of read between the
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lines and come up with their own
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narrative and that's problematic you
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want to be able to have that inperson
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ability to to dig deeper so there there
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was a trend for a while which went away
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so don't do this I guess but where it
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was like tldr and I give like the main
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way I love that because then you're like
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I'm always about diverse audiences so
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you're appealing to the person who has
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more who wants more thought but to that
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short as possible and then provide
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opportunities for that learner that
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needs to more like set it here's the
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quick bullets don't understand anything
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here's my cly set a meeting with me um
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or want more on teams or or slack give
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the option but be as brief as possible
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and I I really always appreciate H you
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reminding us like like how to the ways
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in which things can be
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interpreted um
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yes day the power of the intro which
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really seems actually coun step one so
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let's go this is my biggest Achilles
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here and I just like now that we're
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speaking about it week after week I
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think I'm going to try and help myself
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you know I got to fix this problem your
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intro is incredibly important it's how
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people frame you it's how they see you
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and I oftentimes feel very insecure even
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if it's like a scenario where everybody
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knows each other what am I doing here
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what's the role that I'm playing what
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should I say but really your intro
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frames how people are going to react to
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you it's like people judge a book by
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their cover they're gonna judge you by
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your intro and if you say nothing that's
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your intro folks that's your intro and I
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say nothing I say I would go a step
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further in that we've been on Zoom calls
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or look this is real life too been on
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anywhere and um there's small breakout
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rooms and you have a prompt I don't care
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if the prompt is is your best underwater
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fishing whatever it is right and then
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inevitably you go into this breakout
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room and it is award you go into the
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breakout table and you stare at each
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other until the extrovert of your small
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grip is like okay let's get started
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because they have hit their end of the
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awkward some people have a lot higher
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tolerance and whoever has the lowest
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tolerance for sitting in silence will
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inevit break it and you'll do the thing
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what I I really think like just ensuring
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that that space is there go into the
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room I don't care how you do it the
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person with the first letter in the
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alphabet of their first name should
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start just say your name and where
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you're from or depending on the context
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right and and just as a facilitator I
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think K you bring up a great Point as a
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participant as a facilitator build in
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that time for them to introduce
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themselves I've been on a ton of calls
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where like I'm pretty sure I know this
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person but I don't actually know who
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they are and then you know what I'm
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doing I'm private messaging the other
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person hey Sam who who is this person
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right so then you're like not only
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taking yourself out of the conversation
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you're now creating like subgroups
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within the group and just leave the
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space it's so true and I like the idea
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of coming up with something neutral like
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let's go alphabetical order let's go you
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know by by when your birthday is like
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whatever it is that kind of like yeah it
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legitimately does not matter people I
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think like the wild thing we learned
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over the last couple years is people
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actually like structure um and
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it like takes away the anxiety of like
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what am I supposed to do when and and
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even if you're not somebody who likes
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the structure the issue is that when
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you're online all of those other cues
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that you would have in person is gone so
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you do need to provide more structure
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online than you would if you were in
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person because in person you're in a
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room and it becomes a parent who's
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talking because maybe you had a little
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conversation beforehand maybe everybody
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had a chance to like jockey where you're
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sitting at the table and all of those
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little things add to the environment of
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knowing each other and so online you do
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need to structure it yeah and I and I
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think it also gives you an opportunity
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to follow up if in your intro you're
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like I love knitting whatever it is
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right then you can do a little private
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message like at the end on one of your
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channels being like Oh I love this too
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and it's just like a further bond for
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you um and I and I think like finding
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especially in remote work the the title
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is like lol to Roi right like finding
9:00
that moments of like joy and happiness
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that that have a really high rate of
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return um for your connection so this is
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like a really low barrier thing you can
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do to build further and stronger bonds
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with people I I agree make sure you
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introduce yourself now let's go on to
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our third point today and this is our
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final point and we're going to do it
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pretty quick because we're coming we
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want to keep it brief just as we said at
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that top of the intro here so um time
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zones time zones because we have this
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remote Workforce we are now working and
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collaborating on numerous different time
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zones at all times Charlene take it away
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for us I feel it is so important to be
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hyper aware of who you're working with I
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work I live in I live in M like Mountain
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stand whatever I'm in different time
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zones wherever uh depending on the time
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of year I keep my computer in New York
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time zones when someone is scheduling
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with me they should not worry about
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where I'm living living our office is in
10:00
New York I work in New York time zones
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don't be like it's 3:00 for you and 7
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o'cl for me that is 100% when every one
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of our mistakes happens is when we're
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trying to do too much calculating so if
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you are working if you are at somewhere
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where the there is a center location I'm
10:20
sorry but that's just the one you have
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to use whether you are living there or
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not that being said if you are working
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in New York and you want to schedule for
10:29
from someone with LA if you want them
10:30
happy don't be doing it at 9:00 a.m.
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right they'll do it because that's what
10:34
they have to do but nobody wants a 6
10:36
a.m. meeting and that's going to make
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them grumpy so I think you really need
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to be aware of who and when you're
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scheduling with and and as the places
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get bigger you might not actually know
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right like like you work for as like a
10:48
thousand employees right you don't know
10:50
where they are you can just ask them
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right be like hey you know if you if you
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think you're about to schedule someone
10:56
at 5: in the morning just ask them I
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also a huge proponent by the way this is
11:00
a little tangent of keeping your work
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calendars up to date so people can see
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them and schedule with them um and then
11:06
just frankly I have a 6 AM time zone
11:08
block because I don't want to meet I may
11:10
be working at 6 am but I do not want to
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meet with anybody at 6 am unless I
11:14
really need to and then of course I'll
11:15
adjust but I I think the key is one be
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aware of the Central not Central Time
11:21
Zone but the core time zone that the
11:23
rest of your employees are in and and
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unfortunately you got to work with that
11:27
and then to just really conscious that
11:30
we're in this environment and you may be
11:32
scheduling for someone at 7 o'clock at
11:34
night and not that they won't do it just
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be conscious of like who's the P who do
11:38
you want to get on the other end of that
11:40
call right like how happy do you want
11:42
that person to be so I think it's just
11:44
really important to be in sync with um
11:47
with your fellow workers I would add one
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thing to all of that as a worker um when
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you know you're working with other
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people that are on different time zones
11:57
don't get so upset when you open up your
12:00
computer and seemingly everyone's been
12:03
working 24 hours and you're already
12:05
behind and I think that that's something
12:07
psychologically you might feel when you
12:09
open your computer and you see there's a
12:10
ton of emails lots of slacks you know
12:13
text message however way it is that you
12:15
communicate it's please know that you
12:19
are working on your time zone and in
12:21
that period and yes there are other
12:23
people working at other times and that's
12:25
okay you're not going to open up you're
12:27
not going to get there at 8 in the
12:28
morning with your desk clean like it was
12:30
when you went to you know when you left
12:31
the office at 5 or six or s or whenever
12:33
it is there's going to be a pile of
12:35
stuff there just get used to that
12:37
reality I love so we're gonna we're
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gonna wrap it all up for you guys today
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so working in the in this world that we
12:46
do when you're communicating across
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platforms number one keep it simple keep
12:53
it concise number
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two your intro get one and use it and
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number three be aware of the different
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time zones that we're
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in yes thank you everyone for joining us
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today I think um it it's this is really
13:12
stuff that we really just keep in our
13:14
mind that comes up really every single
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day so thank you all for joining and as
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every week we wish you to learn a little
13:22
bit more every day we hope you found our
13:25
discussion informative and
13:27
thought-provoking be sure to subscribe
13:29
to our podcast to stay up toate on the
13:31
latest insights in the industry and
13:33
remember to share this episode with
13:35
colleagues and friends who will find it
13:37
helpful thanks for tuning in we'll see
13:39
you next time bye take
13:42
care



English (auto-generated)