Over-communication is the glue that holds a high-performing team together and keeps them focused in the same direction. It returns to clarity at this point. You cannot have clarity without clear, regular communication. How to use it effectively? Continue reading, and you will learn it.
Table of Contents
Why Overcommunication is Important?
It may seem counterintuitive to overcommunicate; after all, why repeat what you’ve already said if you’ve already communicated it?
However, when done properly, overcommunication can assist leaders in reinforcing crucial messages (such as the company’s mission and values), assisting staff in remembering important details, and ensuring that everyone heard and understood the message.
In other words, overcommunication helps prevent misunderstandings, keeps key information top of mind, and makes sure everyone is on the same page.
What Overcommunication is Not?
In particular, when working remotely, there are advantages to overcommunicating. In particular, it is critical to overcommunicate during crises and during periods of significant change. Regular updates, check-ins, and follow-ups can help you avoid misunderstandings in these situations. Additionally, redundant communication keeps your employees’ spirits high even during uncertain times. So, let’s take a look at an example of when overcommunicating was not only desirable but necessary.
For example, if your business employs people from all over the world, it’s likely that you don’t all work the same hours every day simply due to the time zone differences. Nevertheless, it’s possible that some of the messages are overlooked during this time-lapse. Hence, it’s crucial that you overcommunicate with your colleagues. To ensure that the messages are heard by every team member, they must be repeated.
In his article in Forbes magazine, Ken Makovsky talks about his early days in management, when someone advised him to follow a certain rule. They advised him that his immediate subordinate only needed to hear a message once. Furthermore, his second subordinate has to hear the same information twice, whereas the third subordinate may need to hear it three or four times. Although this may come off as harsh, it is a tried-and-true method that works.
When You Should Overcommunicate?
Recognizing when and where over-communication is most helpful is important because it is so simple to overcommunicate in unhelpful ways.
To clarify and reinforce important leadership messages, such as your organization’s vision, priorities, or corporate goals, overcommunication is especially crucial during times of change or crisis.
Managing change, especially on a department or organizational level, requires juggling a lot of moving parts. Without constant, unambiguous, and regular communication, crucial information may get overlooked and staff members may come to feel misunderstood, underappreciated, or confused. Avoiding misunderstandings, maintaining employee morale in the face of uncertainty, and navigating change more easily can all be accomplished by communicating with regular updates and check-ins and reinforcing messaging through follow-ups.
To further help your teams align with a strategy or mission, it is important to communicate your vision as a leader or organization frequently. When you overcommunicate your vision, you build a culture around that value and your staff will be better able to connect their own goals and problem-solving to that vision. An example of this would be to link your vision to smaller team-level projects or goals.
What Are the Benefits of Overcommunication in a Remote Workplace?
In their article “How Managers Use Multiple Media: Discrepant Events, Power, and Timing in Redundant Communication”, Tsedal B, a professor at Harvard Business School Neeley and Northwestern University’s professors, Elizabeth Gerber and Paul M. According to Leonardi, project progress is made more quickly and successfully by managers who purposefully overcommunicate than by managers who don’t. Typically, they experiment with a variety of media to get their point across.
Such managers might, for instance, send an email after conveying a message in a meeting and then use a chat app for business communications to reiterate the key points of that information.
The benefits of this “redundancy” are manifold. Here are some of them:
Overcommunication Helps You Avoid Confusion
It can be difficult to conduct a meeting while working remotely or using some of the tools for online meetings.
For instance, it’s possible that not every employee heard the message clearly the first time. Because some people are shy and won’t admit that they don’t understand something, overcommunication can help in this situation. In these situations, repeating the message is beneficial. In addition, it’s possible that the message was misunderstood the first time, during the meeting, so it’s always a good idea to reiterate it in writing, first via email and then even in a team chat application, as a form of reminder.
Overcommunication Creates Accountability
The first step toward establishing an accountable culture is for managers to give their staff members clear instructions. Employees are interested in learning how their performance is evaluated, so this is crucial. Additionally, they value criticism. Businesses that don’t share information openly, on the other hand, foster a culture of rumors and conjecture. Overcommunicating relevant messages help employees feel more invested in their work. They are more motivated and have a better understanding of their responsibilities.
Overcommunication Helps You Provide Purpose
Sadly, it’s not difficult to lose motivation while working remotely. However, 85% of workers say they feel most motivated when their managers regularly update them on news and information about the company, according to Workplace communication statistics 2021. This is where excessive communication enters the picture because it strengthens organizational cohesion.
Additionally, managers can effectively communicate a company’s goals and vision to their staff by being overly communicative. According to research, only 43% of employees are clear on their organization’s objectives for the year, because usually, company-wide goals are communicated once and then quickly fade into the background due to other priorities. That is why it’s crucial for the management to overcommunicate their goals clearly to their subordinates. They are able to inspire workers in this way because it is now clear why they are exerting effort.
Apart from that, a common goal and vision increase productivity and overall work quality.
Overcommunication Helps You Build Positive Company Culture
Speaking of common goals and objectives, they are certainly a part of company culture and vision. Therefore, when managers clearly communicate—and even over-communicate—their message, their employees are aware of what is expected of them and can work efficiently. This all contributes to a more upbeat environment at work, which is even more challenging to achieve when working remotely. That is why reiterating the same message via different communication channels is crucial. It’s crucial to strike a balance between professional communication and informal conversations with coworkers if you want to create a relaxed work environment.
How to Overcommunicate Effectively?
Make sure your overcommunication is pertinent and helpful by using the following advice.
Keep It Simple
Aim for clarity and conciseness in your communications and feedback. Focus on communicating expectations, goals, or priorities rather than getting bogged down in the smallest of details.
Your message will be more powerful and clear if you hyper-focus on the ideas or details you decide to convey.
Hold Short Frequent Check-ins
Choose shorter, more focused check-ins more frequently rather than lengthy meetings with agendas that cover a wide range of topics or priorities.
For example, when starting a new project or making changes, it’s important to bring in those who need to be a part of the conversation early and sync often. By doing this, it is made sure that everybody is aware of the project’s goals, how it relates to the objectives of the company, what each person’s role is, and when things are expected to happen.
Use subsequent check-ins to provide quick updates on accountability and progress to keep everyone informed and ensure that the project is proceeding as expected.
Pro tip: Remember that too many meetings can make employees feel overwhelmed. The best place to discuss important information that needs face-to-face communication is during meetings, such as information about policies, procedures, or goals. For the sake of not wasting your employees’ time, save smaller details for email updates.
Make 1:1s Relaxed
Not every 1:1 has to be a formal production. In casual, low-pressure situations, check in with your team members.
Relaxed 1:1s assist you in upholding a positive rapport with your team so that workers feel free to communicate with you and have the chance to offer you regular feedback and insights. For example, consider holding lunch meetings or “walk and talk.”
A loose agenda that is centered on checking in on each employee individually should be used for lunch meetings or 1:1 walks. These are wonderful chances for you to interact with your staff in a more relaxed and personal way, which can improve your rapport and establish trust.
Mix Up Your Modes of Communication
There are numerous channels available for communicating with your staff (and vice versa). The benefits and uses of various channels will vary. Mixing up your communication methods is nothing to be afraid of.
For instance, you can schedule weekly standup meetings to check in on team progress and provide any high-level updates, but rely on email or chat for quick questions and process flowcharts or visuals to quickly reference project workflows or assignments.
Through simple-to-use visuals, Lucidchart facilitates seamless team collaboration. Create flowcharts to map your processes and workflows, and use visuals such as Gantt charts or Kanban boards to track assignments and accountabilities. To ensure you have a single source of truth, import data and link it directly to your visual. Use @mentions to alert team members to important information or to new details in your documentation.
Find out from your team what communication cadence and channels they prefer. Don’t be afraid to change your routine to find a process that works for everyone.
Don’t Wait on News (Good Or Bad)
One of the most important rules for good communication is relaying news in a timely manner. Even if the news is bad, don’t hold off on sharing it. In times of uncertainty or change, this is especially valid. Maintain regular contact with your staff members to keep them informed, even if you don’t have any answers to their questions (or are simply unable to provide any).
Building trust and easing uncertainty-related anxiety through the sharing of news and updates as the situation develops. Employees will experience less stress and be better able to handle change if they believe that you will be open and honest with them.
Can You Overcommunicate at Work?
Let me calm your anxious mind. Not only you can, but you should overcommunicate at work. A research study on the Digital communication crisis shows that over 70% of surveyed office workers experienced some form of unclear communication in the workplace. Overcommunication is just the cure for this ailment.
Even though the term itself sometimes sounds daunting, overcommunication is a manager’s best tool for preventing remote workplace conflicts. Such managers must find a way to get their point across while also overcommunicating to head off any potential conflicts since they do not have the luxury of daily face-to-face interactions with their staff. Apart from that, overcommunication should be used for reinforcing key messages from top leadership — such as an organization’s vision, priorities, or company’s goals.
However, keep in mind that excessive communication is a two-way street. Both managers and employees should communicate excessively with one another. In particular, staff members must be confident in how they voice their worries and qualms.
This is particularly crucial in transitional or emergency situations.
It is the responsibility of the company to reassure staff members that everything will be okay when they express fear for their jobs and worry. This makes a big difference in creating a cozy workplace where insecurities have no place.
How is Overcommunication Different from Communication?
In his article, “Calculated overcommunication: Strategic uses of prolixity, irrelevance, and repetition in administrative language”, Sten Hanssonsuggests that the prefix over- in the term “overcommunication” implies that there is such a thing as a norm in communication — i.e. the right amount of it. Understandably, it is not simple to define what is the “right amount” of communication.
Consequently, just as there is overcommunication, there is the other side of the medal, called under communication. Namely, if overcommunication means repeating the message, under communication is practically the opposite of this phenomenon — i.e., the lack of adequate interaction among coworkers. It can be risky because it fuels rumors and worries. For instance, people in the workplace have overheard something, but don’t have sufficient information to decide whether they should be losing sleep on this new information.
How is Overcommunication Different from Information Overload?
The inability to make decisions as a result of having too much information is known as information overload, information, or data smog. When we discuss information overload in remote workplaces, the situation is further aggravated. This includes both the volume of emails we receive in a single day and the noise generated by our other collaboration tools. All of that hinders our ability to make decisions and renders us almost paralyzed.
However, in a remote work environment where it’s difficult to casually remind everyone of a task that needs to be done while sipping coffee in a break room, overcommunication can be a useful way of communicating information among coworkers. Because of this, it is important to strategically repeat important messages over time, repeatedly, until everyone has heard and understood them.
Is It Better to Over Communicate Or Under Communicate?
It is crucial that you keep everyone informed about what is happening throughout the entire culture change process! Instead of communicating too little, take a chance. Lack of communication from leaders emerged as a recurring theme in our survey responses.
Conclusion
When it comes to running a business, you can never fully predict the future. The trick is to prepare for the unexpected in your communication by anticipating it. There are going to be hiccups. Instead of panicking, quickly communicate issues to the appropriate stakeholders so you can overcome obstacles as a team.
Two-way communication is essential. As you create a culture of “overcommunication,” you will build trust between your leadership and employees and make it easier for employees to provide needed feedback, ask questions, and be open about challenges or issues.