Want to increase your productivity in 2020?

By Kathy Kyle Bonomini, Co-Founder

Resolve to Go Beyond your screen

Have you ever been added to one of those ‘work’ WhatsApp groups where the team efficiently addresses the work issue? But then someone keeps adding to the conversation…and chatting…and adding emojis…and then chats a little more….? Notification after notification rolls in and you can’t help but stay switched on, long after the ‘work day’ has ended.

Hands up if you’ve sent an email or a direct message to address an issue that a phone call or walking across the hall could solve.

We’ve all probably done it - we sometimes rely on nonverbal, technological means of communicating when it is sometimes best to just pick up the phone, walk ten steps, grab a coffee and actually speak to your team, your customers, and your clients.

But is it the way to build sustainable relationships?

Technology can change the world.

Technological advances can help us work more efficiently, reduce carbon emissions by cutting back on air travel, and bring us closer together. I recognise some actually prefer to communicate via email or text - I do my best to listen to my audience, but I do think it is important to connect on a human level, if even via a video call.

We use technology every day - email, texts, IM, social media, CRM tools - but we need to use it to enable us, not to hinder our productivity or working relationships. As this article by Wired points out, humans can sometimes be driven by the “dopamine reward cycle of constantly checking for messages and responding to every notification.”

When starting a new engagement, I ask my clients how they prefer to manage the project. For us, it depends on the client, the company culture, complexity of the project, size of the organisation, and communications preferences.

Put people first. Always.

In my digital comms training classes and when I meet with new clients, I talk about how we always must put people first, and at the centre of our strategy. We do, and always should. I have found that by doing this our campaigns are not only more impactful, but everyone involved in building the programme is happier and healthier.

We work with clients on a global scale, so we are big proponents of technology. When we engage in a identity rebrand or a website build for example, we use a variety of tools to transparently design, build, ideate, and share content in real time: Craft, Adobe CS, Invision, Google Docs, Skype, Facetime, and WeTransfer.

We need to use technology to be creative and effective in our work. But ultimately don’t forget to use tech to make your life easier and don’t hide behind your screens.

Or maybe we just like having coffee with our clients. If even via Skype.