Communication

Communication happens in many forms. Use different channels for different purposes.

I define a communication channel as a combination of topics discussed and the media used for those topics. For example, some teams use GitHub to discuss code changes. I would call this channel "GitHub pull requests".

I advocate for communicating as much as possible in written form. It's best for broadcasting and it's more inclusive than most communication forms. For these reasons, this chapter mostly focuses on written communication.

In the past decade, it has become a fashion to use a chat system for all of written communication. I call this "the chat nightmare".

Supposedly, it makes information flow in a transparent and durable way. Transparency and durability are important qualities of good communication; there isn't anything wrong with that. But making these qualities the sole goal of your communication efforts shifts the focus from the who to the how.

At the risk of being repetitive: it's always about people. The key to a good communication system is understanding that people need different amount of information and modes of consumption to be happy. A good solution is to offer different communication channels where information flows, and to make it clear that each channel comes with its own style of consumption.

This approach clashes with the idea of using your chat system for everything. Using the same media for all of your communication means everything has the same importance and that everyone must experience it in the same way.

I'm arguing for using a variety of channels instead of just a chat system for written communication. I'm going to provide a framework for evaluating and organising written communication channels first and then discuss examples of my favourite channels.