While larger initiatives tend to get more visibility, day-to-day operational efficiencies can be just as impactful. At Citrix, our employee survey revealed that our team’s communication was unclear. There were many facets in play, but one was that communication was messy. We organically formed patterns and habits for how we communicated, but it wasn’t consistent across the organization or from person to person. The consequence—people were missing important messages.
To address this issue, another designer and I hosted a communications tool workshop to figure out a solution. From there, we’d brainstorm some solutions to improve how we communicated as an org.
For our tool workshop, we invited the org to an hour-long whiteboarding session. About a dozen teammates voluntarily joined—which was significant because of how under-resourced we were. From that, we got a sense of the successes and pain points with the tools we had.
Our findings showed that people:
- Didn’t know which tool to use when (for example, “Should I use Slack or Teams?”)
- Were distracted by the noise these tools generated
- Were stressed because they couldn’t find important information
To make improvements, we came up with a few solutions:
- A simple decision tree that recommended which tools to use for different scenarios (e.g., virtual workshop, kick-off meeting, etc.)
- Cheat sheets for each tool to help teammates get the most out of them. They included pro tips to reduce noise and feel more in control of the tool
- A Slack channel guide—including naming conventions and best practices around creating and posting in channels.
🤩 Impact of the improvements
The team was excited to have these solutions established. These adjustments streamlined communications within our org. Our work empowered teammates to communicate effectively and to find important information quickly. We all felt relieved and less stressed!