Workplace Collaboration: A Guide to Choosing Appropriate Channels

March, 2019

Workplace Collaboration thumbnail

In today’s world, when we need to communicate with one or more co-workers, we can choose between a lot of “channels.” This guide weighs the strengths and weaknesses of various forms of communication. Coverage includes both face-to-face (one-on-one, group, impromptu, and planned) and mediated (phone call, video call, email message, text message, chat message, and file/log maintenance) options. The guide is suitable for individual use as well as an aid to group discussion. A companion resource, Workplace Collaboration: Choosing Appropriate Channels, provides prompts for leading a group exercise and discussion about collaboration channels.

Face-to-Face Collaboration

Pros

  • Conveys full range of non-verbal cues

  • Encourages focused attention

  • Allows for immediate feedback and clarification

Cons

  • Capturing a record of communications is possible, but solutions can be labor-intensive (e.g., taking minutes) and/or discourage candor (e.g., audio recording)

One-on-One

Pros

  • Is well suited to discussion of confidential matters

  • Is relatively easy to schedule

  • Allows people to get to know one another, helping to build trust

Cons

  • Makes it challenging to consider others’ perspectives

Group

Pros

  • Allows for consideration of diverse perspectives

  • Allows for information to be disseminated efficiently and at least somewhat precisely

  • Provides opportunities to build consensus and develop culture

Cons

  • Makes it easy to waste time (e.g., due to poor preparation, topics irrelevant to some participants)

  • Can be difficult to schedule if many people are involved

  • May offer individuals limited opportunities to be heard

  • May favor dominant personalities over reserved ones

Impromptu

Pros

  • Allows for timely response to emergent issues

Cons

  • Preempts the use of time as previously planned; if overused, discourages advance planning

  • Elicits quick thinking rather than reflection and creativity

Planned

Pros

  • Respects participants’ time

  • Allows for preparation, potentially fostering productive and efficient collaboration

Cons

  • Is likely to be postponed or canceled if emergent issues or competing events arise

  • May contribute to complicated schedules through double-booking, transitions from one event to another

Mediated Collaboration

Pros

  • Allows people to collaborate even if they’re not physically together

Cons

  • Requires monitoring of relevant channel(s)

  • Conveys limited non-verbal cues

  • Presumes that all participants have access to devices, software, and network

Phone Call

Pros

  • Allows for timely response to emergent issues

Cons

  • May interrupt important activity

  • Does not facilitate exchange if group is large

  • Does not typically yield a record of exchange

  • Does not typically allow for reflective thinking

Video Call

Pros

  • Conveys non-verbal cues better than other mediated channels

Cons

  • May employ technology that is neither widely available nor user-friendly

Email Message

Pros

  • Retains a record of communications automatically

  • Is well suited to non-urgent issues

  • Flattens the organizational hierarchy and allows for communication across organizational lines

  • Allows for information to be disseminated efficiently and precisely

Cons

  • May not be read promptly and fully, especially if long—particularly problematic if a group is involved

  • Is particularly susceptible to overuse, making it more difficult to notice and locate relevant information

  • Can prove to be inefficient if clarifications are required

  • Can be shared with unintended recipients

Text Message

Pros

  • Retains a record of communications automatically

  • May allow for timely response to emergent issues even if there are competing factors (e.g., a previously scheduled meeting)

  • Is well suited to questions that can be answered briefly

Cons

  • May interrupt important activity

  • May encourage miscommunication due to brevity and iteration

  • Yields records that cannot easily be searched

  • Can foster tension between work and private life

Chat Message

Pros

  • Conveys information about a person’s availability

  • Retains a record of communications automatically

  • May allow for timely response to emergent issues even if there are competing factors (e.g., a previously scheduled meeting)

Cons

  • May interrupt important activity

  • May encourage miscommunication due to brevity and iteration

  • May make private communications public if screen is being shared

File/Log Maintenance

Pros

  • Retains a record of communications automatically

  • Allows for information to be disseminated efficiently and precisely

Cons

  • Is ill suited to collaboration around emergent issues

  • Requires clear protocols, especially if more than one person has writing capabilities

Want to learn more about organizational communication and related topics?

Click the buttons below to see relevant entries in my bibliography, SmithFile.