The seven deadly sins of digital working
Well, maybe “sins” is a little strong for what really are poor digital collaboration habits; but let’s face it, we can often tolerate poor habits, but sins are something we really do not want to commit.
These digital sins were gleaned from SWOOP Analytics’ recent benchmarking study of almost 100,000 digital teams across 33 organisations using Microsoft Teams. We don’t rely on surveys to conduct our benchmarking; we analyse the actual digital interactions of staff over an extended three-month period; more than 320,000 in this study.
Seven of those organisations are digital working consultancies; working as both benchmarking subjects and subject matter experts. It’s from this confluence of digital working expertise, backed up by real digital interaction data from identified leading digital teams, that the seven deadly digital sins arose. While the study was specifically on Microsoft Teams, the sins are independent of the specific technical platforms you may be using.
Here they are:
Thou shalt not try to work in chat
We found staff were sending, on average, 28 times as many chat messages than the threaded and persistent Teams channel messages. Our experts were unanimous on this one. Chat is in the moment and will quickly disappear. It’s best to use the persistent channels where messages can be shared with your team. We also found 98% of chat messages were one-on-one. You can read more on this topic in Make 'Work in Threads, Play in Chat' Your Mantra.
2. Thou shalt not communicate internally with email
Whether we like it or not, email is not going away too soon. Where we can make it go away is when we are communicating exclusively internally. Why risk a work colleague missing your message in the tsunami of emails we receive every day? We have many other more effective channels available now; preferably a threaded discussion message, but if need be, a simple chat message can be much more effective.
3. Thou shalt not spend more time in meetings than absolutely necessary
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, being in back-to-back meetings was worn as a badge of honour; “look at how busy I am; I must be important”. As we move into a more hybrid and flexible working space, the “meeting” which constrains workers to same-time and same-(digital) space, is now a significant constraint for many of us. Our experts recommend meetings should be reserved for “qualitative” work; like team building or creative work. Using meetings for status reports is seen as a waste of time.
4. Thou shalt not keep most of your working files in your personal space
I’ll admit to this sin. I like to start developing my content in my own private digital space; only releasing it to a shared space when I’m comfortable that it is ready to share. But what happens when my versions get out of synch? Am I working on the private or public version? What version are my colleagues also reviewing or working on? It can quickly become a nightmare. As to my concerns that others will see my half-baked work-in-progress? Well, that may be a risk, but it turns out they are far too busy working on their own stuff than to look at mine; before I announce it is ready for their attention.
By the way, I’m drafting this article in a shared space!
5. Thou shalt not keep your camera off in online video meetings
This can be a controversial one, but on the balance, our experts lean towards “camera on”. Bandwidth issues aside, the visual cues available from having our cameras on, significantly outweigh having a “bad hair” day. COVID-19 has also normalised the informal look, as we were all forced to work from home. No excuses; turn the camera on!
6. Thou shalt not only talk in digital meetings, without looking to share content online
It’s rare we attend a face-to-face meeting where the attendees only talk, without wanting to share some content, use a whiteboard, share a presentation etc.. While we acknowledge the digital meeting equivalents require a little more skill, our experts felt it was worth making the effort to learn. For example, a simple sharing of your screen does not take much to learn. When was the last time you volunteered to do this in a digital meeting?
7. Thou shalt not forget about your Enterprise Social Network
In the rush to team-centred tools like Microsoft Teams and Slack, it can be easy to overlook your Enterprise Social Networks like Yammer or Workplace by Facebook. These platforms are often referred to as the “digital watercooler”; a place to escape the day-to-day, a place to step back, reflect, learn from others, and connect more broadly across the enterprise. Don’t miss the opportunity to build your reputation beyond your immediate team.
Moving into a new world of more flexible, hybrid working, the tolerance for poor digital working habits will limit your ability to thrive and achieve. Framing these ‘poor habits’ as ‘digital sins’ is one way to move forward with the confidence that you are putting your best foot forward, in an emerging hybrid working world.
