This blog article is based on a webinar recording. You are welcome to watch the webinar or read the content as part of the blog article. Just learn how it suits you best.
As part of the online seminar series “Good collaboration – communicating, moderating and passing on knowledge” of the German Foundation for Commitment and Volunteering, we talk about methods for profitable digital communication and techniques for moderating it in a targeted and engaging way. This blog post and associated webinar recording is the first part of four topics and focuses on the building block of communication.
Most people get involved because they want to make a difference (together with others). To achieve this goal, good, functioning communication is a prerequisite. To get some basic knowledge on communication, feel free to check out our blog post “Online Communication in Volunteering – A Guide“, which goes into the first part of this webinar. In this post, we’ll look at Part Two of the webinar and discuss how to choose the right tool for you and your digital communications.
What to look for when choosing your tool
- Does the tool make your work easier?
When choosing a tool, make sure you keep in mind how tech-savvy your team and the people you communicate with are. Because the tools should support you in your everyday life and not make it more difficult. If your team members feel that the tool will cost them much more effort and the simplification of their work is not really great, it will be difficult to establish the chosen tool. - How good is your members’ Internet connection?
The accessibility and quality of your team members’ Internet connection must be factored into your choice of tools. How regularly can you use video conferencing? Might conference calls be more effective in some cases? - Your members’ devices
Are the people on your team more likely to be on their smartphones, sitting at their laptops to work with each other, or do they have a computer at home from which they dial in? If you’re more likely to connect with each other using a cell phone, then providers that offer an app may be particularly suitable. If most members use a computer, then software that offers a desktop application is a good option. - The attention span of your members
It may well be that your target audience would like to work in a very clear, focused and structured way and only have features that actively contribute to your good communication. But then there are also people who like a lot of (extra) functions and want to have all these needs covered. This can quickly become overwhelming, but at the same time it can of course be a lot of fun. For this reason, you have to find out together as a team how much functionality you need and want and define the right degree between underchallenge, overchallenge, freedom and enjoyment of the tool. - Separation of honorary office, life and work
As you introduce new tools, your members may already be using those tools in other areas of their lives. This can have both advantages and disadvantages. It can have the advantage that you can reach the members very easily if they also use the tool in their free time or at work. But maybe that’s exactly what your committed people don’t want, to be able to clearly separate the different areas of life.
Synchronous and asynchronous communication
Communication (in the team) can be divided into two areas: asynchronous communication and synchronous communication. Asynchronous communication includes all tools through which you can communicate with each other in a time-delayed manner (i.e. e-mails, for example). Synchronous communication includes all tools through which you can communicate simultaneously (for example, video conferences or phone calls). You need different tools for the different types of communication.
Want to learn more about communication in your team? Then feel free to check out our online course Beyond Screens . Here you will learn step by step which tools you can/should use and at the same time directly develop your own communication guide for your team.
