What is Slack and Why You Should Care? Collaboration…Optimized

Is there anything more frustrating than sending an email to a team member and then waiting for them to get back to you? How often do you find yourself doing “busy” work until that crucial bit of information finds its way through the email servers and back to your desk? Remember that email exchange you had with a colleague a few months ago that outlines something useful for your current work? Well, good luck finding it.

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” – George Bernard Shaw

With email, we’re constantly assuming we got our point across but how often have you reread something you sent only to circle back and realize you didn’t ask the whole question?

Enter Slack

I know what you’re thinking…do I really want to learn another online platform? Let me assure you, if you can handle email, Facebook or old school messenger apps like AIM or Trillian…you can handle Slack.

Slack is a super easy way to keep teams in the know with minimal fuss and bother. Here are my favorite features and some suggestions on how to utilize them:

Ps: Slack has awesome help files so I won’t recreate the wheel here. Keep an eye out for helpful links!

Slack is a huge leap forward in collaboration! Everything is in ONE place.

1. • Connect Your Team – Once everyone is signed up, you can easily see who is online and who is away. Give your team permission to be “away”! No one can get any work done if they’re constantly interrupted, so make some time for focus and deep work. Direct messages are a quick way to directly chat with someone but channels are where the magic happens.
   • Choose Your Channels – Channels are like topics or themes. You start off with #general and #random but can easily add more to suite your needs and designate who has permission to access them. For example, you might want a channel for each project, team, financials, recognition, suggestions, and more. I’d advise that you keep it simple and slowly let it evolve as your team gets moving. Every time you feel like you’re performing an action one too many times…it’s likely a good idea to think about how you can move that information more efficiently.
     • The Magic – The beauty of channels is that everyone can see what’s being discussed. This is a huge leap forward in collaboration. Wondering how best to manage your projects? Think about all of your texts, emails, PMs, DMs, memos, forms, to-do lists, support tickets, calendar events, faxes (yes, they do still exist), post-it notes and more…all in one place. So often, we feel like we’re working in an isolated state but think how much more effective we can be if our questions, notes, insights, and ideas are spoken about openly and with multiple perspectives? Suddenly, new insights are pouring in and a new perspective might just change the way you are thinking about your project.
   •  Access Important Files – Slack integrates with Google Drive and much more, but you can also pin those files within slack so they’re within easy reach. If you’re working on a project and constantly reaching for the same few files, pin them to the applicable channel and they’re good to go. No more emailing the files to new team members or sifting through massive amounts of emails for those documents you’re sure someone sent you. It’s also super simple to share directly within Slack and create checklists, bullet points, outlines and code snippets (if you’re into that).
     • Search and you shall find – Not only does Slack store all this great stuff, it’s super easy to search and find whatever you are looking for. You can also filter the search so if you’re a bit hazy on the details, chances are you can still get to the information you need.
   • Notifications  – Don’t be afraid to CUSTOMIZE! Everyone has different thresholds for the white noise. Set a few ground rules so that direct @mentions shouldn’t get ignored, but in general, you can likely let your team create their own notifications. There are some easy ways to alert everyone and we’ll get into that next.
   • There’s a Bot for That – Firstly, get to know Slackbot. You can set it up to answer many common questions (wifi password, who do you send expense reports to, when is my timecard due, when is quittin’ time). Make them fun and specific to your team or just keep them simple. Beyond Slackbot, the sky’s the limit. Need a bot to take coffee orders? How about a quick office poll? Want to track your todo list? There are tons of integrations with other software like Trello, Jira, Mailchimp, Analytics and so much more.
   • Integrations – Not only is Slack an awesome tool for the reasons mentioned above, but you can also bring integrations into play and really up your game. Whether you want to streamline invoicing and accounting or schedule social media there are tons of ways to meet your needs. Slack allows you to bring all the information you need to run your business to ONE place. Think about that for a second. That’s HUGE! As someone who values having everything at her fingertips,everything you need to run your business in ONE place.

Like with any good tool, you need to think about how Slack can be used effectively. Write down your top few hurdles and start with those. Get some team members to give suggestions and input. If the ideas seem sound, TRY IT OUT. What have you got to lose?

Make a plan and don’t be afraid to adapt as you go.

Create a quick, easy to use guide with your organization’s current Slack practices pinned to one of your main channels (and prompt Slackbot on where to find it too!). That way, all users have an easy way to see what’s new, what’s working and what ideas have become defunct. Encourage new ideas by offering a small reward for ideas that are implemented and successful for your team. Don’t worry, there’s a bot for that too.