Letting Go of the Telegraph’s Legacy

If you think about it, email is just a superfast version of a letter someone could have mailed 200 years ago, and text messages are telegrams on a screen. 

Why, in the 21st century, do we insist on using souped-up versions of written technologies that we had no choice but to embrace in the past?

Our workplace love affair with the written word at least partially stems from the psychological advantage of separating ourselves from our message. We can draft and redraft an email. We can send a text without seeing or hearing the recipient’s response. 

But, reliance on the written word comes at the expense of two critical aspects when it comes to communication – inclusivity and engagement. When we solely communicate through emails and texts, we reduce the reach of our message.

Understanding Human Nature

Everyone in the workplace benefits when we approach communication by thinking about the way humans are born to interact. We start to speak and understand language verbally at about six months old, but most people don’t read or write until years later. 

We have missed out on an opportunity by taking our inspiration for communication from email instead of conversation. Almost everyone writes slower than they speak, and they read slower than they listen.

We also all know that written communication lacks nuance hence the rise of emoji use. But if you think emojis are revolutionary for text messaging, just imagine what the human voice can do!

Yet, for some reason, we have normalized the requirement to write an essay just to tell your coworkers about an upcoming refrigerator cleanout. Text communication is the biggest handbrake on the velocity of any knowledge-centered company. It’s straining our brains, and it’s costing us time.

Defining Inclusivity in Workplace Communications

Ideally, workplace communication happens in multiple formats to ensure that nobody is left out of the message. 

Inclusivity in workplace communications means considering the needs and preferences of both the content creator and the message recipient. For some people, that means text is an absolute must. But for many, text-based communication is a barrier to engagement.

Those mindful of inclusivity in workplace communication must consider the following.

• Availability: Socioeconomic and generational factors influence the ability of many employees to access text-based workplace collaboration technologies that require apps on a smartphone.

• Asynchronicity: While oral communication has advantages, today’s employee teams may span multiple countries and time zones, which makes meetings and phone calls difficult to schedule.

• Flexibility: An inclusive workplace does not leave out neurodiverse and differently-abled employees who may require text, oral, or visual communication methods.

• Preference: Some people are uncomfortable with appearing on camera. Others find drafting a written message difficult.

Ultimately, inclusivity means finding ways to communicate that include everyone in the conversation.  

Soundbite and Lightening the Cognitive Load

We have designed our product, Soundbite, to increase engagement and inclusivity in workplace communications while lightening the cognitive load that everyone carries. By empowering employees to create oral and video messages, Soundbite removes the barriers created by written-only communication methods.

Written communication places a much greater burden on our cognitive load than its oral equivalent. If your brain was a computer, cognitive load – basically a human’s working memory – would be its RAM. Everything we have on our minds, from Aunt Betty’s birthday tomorrow to that work deliverable due next week, places a burden on our working memory.

In other words, it takes more brain power to draft an email in our head and write it out than a simple conversation ever would. When we type out that email, we are asking more from our own and our recipient’s brains than we would if we just said what was on our mind.

If you want to improve efficiency at a knowledge-centered company, you do not need a grand strategy. Simply changing the time, brain power, and method for communicating can significantly improve engagement and productivity.

We have inherited a workplace communication style that builds on the legacy of the written memo, the telegraph, and the postal letter. Instead of communicating in the commercially required format of 200 years ago, we should use technology to embrace our biological default.