Rethinking Workplace Communication: Beyond the Chaos of Constant Chats

June 2016

Note: Slack has always been a bit of a misfit for me. It seems well-suited for small startups, but it becomes overwhelming in my experience with large organizations. This perspective, which I first shared in 2016, remains strikingly relevant as I think about the state of Slack today in 2024.

Reflecting on Jason Fried’s incisive article Is group chat making you sweat?, it’s intriguing to consider how the corporate world’s attitude towards instant messaging has evolved. Only a decade ago, platforms like MSN Messenger were often banned in workplaces due to fears of excessive chatting. Now, we see a complete turnaround, with businesses not only embracing but also investing in sophisticated messaging apps complete with gifs and videos, integrating them deeply into their workflows.

Jason Fried once provocatively tweeted, “What would you call an all-day meeting with unknown participants and no agenda?” This tweet, embedded in his article, brings to light the chaotic nature of modern group chats.

When I initially encountered Fried’s viewpoints, being part of a small team, many of his concerns seemed distant. I acknowledged the drawbacks of constant message chasing in channels but didn’t feel it was significantly impacting my productivity. However, my perspective shifted as I began using Slack in larger teams, including over 100 developers. It became clear that channels could indeed detract from productivity, diverting attention from work to the constant buzzing of the messaging app. Although guidelines can help in using tools like Slack more effectively, a tool unsuited for the task is often misused.

A typical scenario for me involves posting queries in specialized channels, but my interest in the channel’s discussions is limited to that specific query. Despite this, I still receive all the @here notifications and sometimes get distracted by other conversations. This situation is common in channels with a mix of core and peripheral members, where the latter group often experiences reduced productivity.

Group chats are effective for specific purposes, such as morning scrums, external meetings, or status updates. However, the issue lies with the all-day, ever-present channels.

An Alternative Approach: Notification Channels

To retain the benefits of synchronous communication across large groups while mitigating the drawbacks of conversation channels, I suggest a new workflow leveraging desktop and mobile notifications for channel messaging.

This approach involves eliminating chat history, gifs, videos, and endless messages, focusing only on crucial information. Further discussions can then proceed through one-on-one conversations or group chats as needed. Here’s how it looks:

• Organizational Structure: Within your organization, you have various groups.
• Membership and Notifications: You can be part of a group but also have the capability to send notifications to any or all groups.
• Responsive Actions to Notifications: Upon receiving a notification, members can:
  • Start a group chat including all channel members and the initiator.
  • Begin a group chat with the initiator and others who opt in.
  • Engage in a one-on-one chat.
  • All chat windows close automatically once the discussion concludes.
• Notification Status: The notification indicates if someone has responded to it.

Practical Examples:

1. Direct Contact for Specialized Queries: In my earlier example, I would no longer be a member of the specialized group but could still directly contact them for assistance. If there’s no response, I’d turn to asynchronous channels like emails or Jira.

2. Crisis Coordination: In urgent situations, notifications can facilitate immediate group formation to address the issue.

3. Social Coordination: For casual inquiries like lunch plans, interested parties can respond to the notification, forming a group chat to make arrangements.

Adopting a notification-centric approach doesn’t create a perfect system, but it significantly cuts down the daily message volume. It addresses the issues of message chasing, false consensus, urgency implied by notification badges, and the overwhelming presence of multiple active conversations. It’s time to rethink and perhaps retire the omnipresent channels.