I was chatting with my friend Paul—he’s an entrepreneur like me—and we got onto the topic of Slack. We were laughing about how it started as a tool for startups but is now everywhere, even in huge corporations. Paul made a great point, the startups he worked with 10 years ago have now moved onto completely different tools such as Discord for example.
In this video, I want to share a simple framework on how to keep on top of all those different tools.
The truth is, new communication tools pop up all the time.
First, it was email, then Slack, Teams, Asana, Trello, Monday.com… and now messages are flying in from every direction—WhatsApp, Teams, Slack, random Trello comments. It’s overwhelming. People are stressed. They’re missing important info simply because they don’t know where to look.
Here’s the thing—tools will come and go. But what really matters is having a clear Communication Framework with your team.
How to Create a Simple Communication Framework
Take 30 minutes with your team and set up three columns:
1️. What tools do we use? List everything—email, Slack, WhatsApp, Trello—whatever your team is using.
2️. What do we use each tool for? Define what each tool is for (and not for). For example, emails might be for external comms, Slack for quick team chats, and Trello for project updates.
3️. What’s the etiquette? Agree on response times. Should emails be answered within an hour or within 24 hours? Where do urgent messages go? What counts as “urgent”?
It sounds simple, but trust me—it makes a huge difference. Less stress, fewer missed messages, and way more clarity.
So, my question to you is: is it worth sitting down with your team and getting this sorted?
I’d love to hear your thoughts!
This is this week’s Work Smarter: Live Better tip.
Hope you have a lovely day!
A bientôt,
Cyril
