Sharing information with colleagues: 5 tips for rock-solid internal communication

A successful business stands or falls with a team working toward the same goals. That becomes a whole lot easier when everyone has access to the same information. A transparent and clear system for all information within your organization is not a nice-to-have but an absolute must-have. In this blog, I give you 5 tips to strengthen your internal communication, making processes run more smoothly and successfully.

A smooth process around information and communication

Colleague Mark previously wrote a blog about the value of building an information organization. A great first step toward transparency, of course, but ultimately an information organization stands or falls with execution.

That’s why you need a system. That way, sharing information becomes a habit within your organization, and colleagues know where to put what information without overwhelming their colleagues. (Because knowing every detail about every project isn’t necessary, either.)

With these 5 tips, you’ll ensure that both the sharing of information and the communication around that information run smoothly, making colleagues work better together and your organization stronger.

Tip 1: Don’t use your communication channel as a repository

Information and communication are not the same thing. And if you want to work together clearly and effectively, that’s a difference to keep in mind. That’s where things often go wrong: It seems like colleagues want to communicate, when really they just want to share information.

This is the difference between information and communication:

• Information goes one way and is a way of sharing thoughts, facts, and opinions.
• Communication goes two ways and is the active exchange of thoughts, facts, and opinions.

Sounds like whining about details? Then wait until your mailbox floods and you can’t find anything. There is no longer a record of the information shared; no one can find it, it gets forgotten and basically all the effort has been for nothing.

The solution to this problem is super simple: use a communication channel and an information tool.

In your communication channel, share only the links to the information and put the information itself in your information tool. We ourselves use Slack as the main communication tool for the organization. For our information, we use Notion. If we want to share knowledge or updates about projects, we put a link to the relevant Notion page in Slack.

To create more clarity, consider giving the Slack channel and the Notion page the same name. In our case, the Finance circle has a Slack channel and a Notion page named Finance. This immediately makes it clear that this information and communication are linked.

Tip 2: Limit yourself to no more than two communication channels

The best way to ensure that communication about important information reaches everyone is to limit your communication channels. If you share links to information everywhere, colleagues quickly lose track. So separating information from communication is not enough on its own.

To ensure that communication is streamlined and aligned with the organization, choose a limited number of methods and tools that the entire organization uses. And you stick to those.

At Voys, we use Slack as the basis for all our communications. This works conveniently because we are a hybrid company. Whether colleagues work in the office or at home doesn’t matter, everyone has access to the same communication in the same way. Slack works great for quick messages to a colleague, a group of colleagues or even the entire organization. In addition, Slack works perfectly for asynchronous working. Colleagues can thus respond to questions on their own time.

On Slack, we share updates on projects, company-wide announcements, and recordings and notes from meetings. We also share updates on a personal level, such as pregnancies, moving to a new home and other major events in our colleagues’ lives. Because this too is valuable information.

Direct communication, such as online meetings, we do through Google Hangouts. We also use Slack to briefly call each other (a huddle) and have meeting rooms set up for hybrid collaboration.

Tip 3: Write in a way that elicits responses (or not!).

Be sure to encourage responding to each other’s messages. Because responding to each other and exchanging information transforms the way you work. This is how you move from working separately to working together. Collaboration leads to growth, so encouraging interaction between colleagues is very valuable.

A very simple way to get a response is to ask for one when you share a post. This sounds like an open door, yet it is often forgotten because we assume it is logical to respond. But that is reasoned from within yourself. A colleague may think very differently. So, ask for what you need.

A few additional tips:

• Ask open-ended questions: by asking open-ended questions, you motivate people to think about an answer and they give more helpful responses of their own accord.
• Let people know that you are open to input: colleagues are eager to contribute. If you ask for input, you will find that you receive valuable substantive responses.
• Also let it be known if you just don’t want responses: this clarity is honest and it saves colleagues a lot of time.

Tip 4: Repeat your message regularly

You can’t expect everyone to have seen your message the first time. There are too many streams of communication coming at people every day for that. If you want to reach your colleagues, it’s much smarter to share your message at different times in different terms.

Just look at your social media feed: repetition works. Every day you see the same advertisement pass by multiple times, so the message sticks. Look at your internal communications with this view, too.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that you spam your colleagues 15 times a day. It does mean that you look at how you can effectively package and repeat your message so that you get the reactions and outcomes you’re looking for.

Write your messages in different ways, in relevant Slack channels, give more or less information and send your message on different days and times.

Tip 5: Help colleagues with internal communication

For many colleagues, the focus is on the content of their work. It takes up so much time and attention that as a result there is not always room to communicate with colleagues about the work at the right time and in the right way. It’s no wonder that colleagues then quickly conclude with: ‘never mind, too much hassle.’

Without processes or structures, internal communication is also a hassle. But in the process you do lose valuable information.

That is why it pays to make it clear to colleagues HOW they can communicate about their work with advice, ideas and tips, so that colleagues begin to see the value of communication, but also have the practical tools to implement it.

That is exactly what I am working on at Voys, together with a group of colleagues. It is important to have colleagues who zoom out and oversee the entire internal communication process. That’s how you make internal communication stronger, so colleagues understand each other better, work together more smoothly and the quality of work increases.

I listen, give feedback and sometimes even write a draft of a message that people can post in Slack. I am proud of that, because with this help our internal communication, and therefore our organization, becomes stronger.

Do you have a system for your internal communications?

Internal communications can all be left to chance, but it’s much smarter to invest in your internal communications with accessible tools and processes, and colleagues who provide the right support. You’ll see the positive impact this has on your organization. How do you work on internal communication within your organization? I would love to hear your experience via LinkedIn!