It would be great if they focused on more of a complete picture. Meetings, email, instant messages are all tools in the communication toolbox. Each one has their use.
This policy minimizes or even forgets the human part of communication...
* How do I build trust in my coworkers if the only feedback I get is formal communication and never the nuance of them as people?
* Are a barrage of async essays better than fewer but efficient meetings where everyone takes away value?
* What about the flood of async communication that employees now have to sift through to find the vital parts of their jobs?
We need to remember that fundamentally that we are people and have social drives that guide our lives and work. Strategies should acknowledge and embrace this.
PS. That "automated" social message sounds forced and robotic. I would love to be a fly on the wall and see the actual results from this form of social greasing after 6 months.
Their main communication tool is Basecamp, which is also the software they sell specifically to manage projects and the “flood of async communication”. I don’t know what their internal messages look like, but I imagine it sits somewhere in between e-mail and IM, same level of formality as a github issue.
I also believe “fewer and efficient meetings” is a mirage, and meetings, even in-person ones, do very little to build trust or satisfy that need for social interaction. That happens in other ways.
This policy minimizes or even forgets the human part of communication... * How do I build trust in my coworkers if the only feedback I get is formal communication and never the nuance of them as people? * Are a barrage of async essays better than fewer but efficient meetings where everyone takes away value? * What about the flood of async communication that employees now have to sift through to find the vital parts of their jobs?
We need to remember that fundamentally that we are people and have social drives that guide our lives and work. Strategies should acknowledge and embrace this.
PS. That "automated" social message sounds forced and robotic. I would love to be a fly on the wall and see the actual results from this form of social greasing after 6 months.