John Bernoff received an inquiry for help with Slack writing. As he describes, “the director of engineering for a major technology company” reached out to inquire about doing a workshop. I do different kind of work, so my answer would have been different.
I agree that Slack is not technically just about writing. Josh suggests someone who is both versed in communication and the use of Slack for the job. There's value in working with someone who has experience in a tool. They might be be able to suggest technical ways to help.
How people use communication as a tool is at the heart of the question. Saying it better is only part of it. What is appropriate for which channel is a governance and policy question. Which would impact knowledge and project management. As in, how we keep track of what we say.
Because it impacts what we do, we also need to think through who is responsible and thus accountable. How is the company using Slack? To what degree is it just casual banter and group brainstorming? And how heavily do people rely on what's there. These are just sample questions.
The overarching question is: Does your company consider communication a strategic tool?
Communication is a powerful tool
If you're not using it appropriately, this could be the kind of problem you're having. Because its impact is felt in culture. Dialogue is part of it. How people say what they say. But also why they say it. Do they talk at all? Is clarity part of it? Feedback loops?
Hence you see how the problem shows up in different ways. Technology maturity also means people's use of it. Operations involves behavior. Customer service / experience and the perception of the company's brands/products and services in the market, ditto. As the impact on the overall executives' and company's reputation.
It's common to receive training and support: speaking effectiveness, business writing workshops, effective use of email. Train the parts.
Organization development work often addresses how people work together. Figure out the whole. Which is a great approach when the problem is systemic. Every group is having a version of the same issue.
Using communication as a diagnostic tool
Part of the problem at a culture- or root-level could be that the company tends to hire and encourage (via policy and rewards) order-takers vs. initiators. Hence it spins cycles trying to gain consensus. Decision-making is centralized. With tactical and task-oriented productivity pushed to each team.
You can use communication—how you go about organizing what you do, including things like feedback—as a diagnostic tool to figure out the kind of problem you're having. That's the kind of developmental strategy work I do.
I developed the diagnostic concept when I started working on the Using Conversation as a Tool training program. The diagram above is a prototype. And there's an entire system that supports each step all the way to mastery. It's a work in progress. It's the work of years.
Part of it involves people's verbal orientation. How you talk gives clues on whether you're proactive or reactive. An exploration of company's communications will provide plenty of clues on what you get the cookie for around here. What is your company encouraging?
Do you want results? You can become more efficient beyond a superficial threshold. Optimizing takes you only so far. The new low hanging fruit is at the root level.