‘Teamwork makes the comms dream work’
Me, August 2020
Every organisation, business, or brand works in a different way, yet at times there are comparable pinch points. Common themes we can all relate to.
Someone not copying a person into an email, a deadline missed, miscommunication and uncertain expectations. We’ve all been there.
As well as the somewhat-annoying Monday.com (adverts EVERYWHERE), there are plenty of free-to-use tools and programmes out there to help with cross-team/department communication and ongoing project management.
Efficiency & Productivity
Whether you’re managing an in-house team at a not-for-profit, local gov or sector specific area, an agency working across multiple clients, disciplines and spinning plates, or a freelancer collaborating with others, these tools can be the extra organisational kick you may need.
I’ll leave Microsoft Teams (the annoying “we live on Teams” advert – ironically with Monday.com ad on YouTube) and Zoom to one side. We’re all well-versed.
The programmes below are but a few of the options to help you and your teams manage, coordinate and focus efforts, helping to increase productivity and efficiency. And, they’ll hopefully help you look really good.
Four free tools to enhance communication
1. Trello
Trello: a ‘productivity power-up’
Ah, Trello. A trusty steed. My go-to project management tool, that (I’ve recently learnt) can link up with email and your calendar for smooth, no-stress reminders and flags.
A ‘productivity power-up’, Trello helps to sync information across teams, ensuring visibility and delegation/responsibility of tasks with a simple, drag-and-drop interface and reminders. Nice interface, and developers love it.
Link: https://trello.com/en
2. Google Suite
Gmail, Google Drive, Keep, Docs, Sheets, Meet, Hangouts, Slides… it is almost endless. Wouldn’t be a technology list without adding in the don of the them all (whose parent company is worth more than US$1tn. One trillion dollars…*cue Dr Evil*).
‘Work faster, work smarter’ – all about personal preference with this suite of tools and programmes – if you love collaborating in real time, on shared docs in Drive, this one’s for you. Great free alternatives to Word and Excel, but get used to links being shared/invites to collaborate, not attachments.
Google Suite: more apps and tools than you can shake a stick at
3. Slack
Slack: ‘where work happens’, apparently
It’s apparently ‘where work happens’. The concept here is to chat more regularly, missing out tragic email threads with dozens cc’d. Channels are where the quick conversations take place, the brainstorms, the quick questions.
Slack also integrates with 2,200+ apps – from Salesforce, to Zoom, to Outlook. Have used this with a number of clients and it works well to keep in contact on a more regular basis, without feeling like you’re waiting for answers.
Link: https://slack.com/intl/en-gb/
4. Float
Float is more for scheduling a team’s (or your teams’) workload, capacity and availability. A resource planning tool that enables you to see, at a glance, who has space for projects, and what can be moved around.
Good if you have a number of designers, writers, content-creators account managers or other colleagues to manage.
Link: https://www.float.com/
Float on: a resource planning tool for managing teams’ capacity
Let me know what you think – do you use any of these? Do you use other products? Do you care?!
Write a comment below, share this link with a colleague or get in touch with me.