How to get people to use Group Chat (e.g. Teams chat)

Group chat is just ‘another Thing I’m supposed to use’ - until it isn’t.

 

Until it’s faster than everything else. 

Until it reduces the meetings you need.

Until it makes meetings better because people are already connected and updated.

Until it gets you instant answers from people who are otherwise hard to reach.

Until it makes you feel that you belong and are understood and respected.

Here’s how to get people over the hump so they love using it and find it valuable and time-efficient.

 

Provide some guidance on how your org/team can best use group chat e.g. for sharing work in progress, for getting quick answers to simple questions, for checking in with people and staying connected when we’re working apart or in different teams, for sharing content and ideas we think others might be interested in, voting using emoji responses. You can also share what it’s not used for in your org/team e.g. any kind of serious decisions, communicating something crucial or detailed etc.

 

Provide very easy routes to respond. Open questions like “What are your thoughts on X?” are hard to answer for a new-to-async team member. 

Try things like: 

“How clear are you on what to do next, from 1-10 (with 10 being totally clear)?” 

Or ask people to give you thumbs up / thumbs down to an idea.

Use emojis to indicate options e.g. ask a question and invite people to respond with:

🎉 = love it

😞 = don’t love it

🤔 = not sure / thinking about it

 

Inject some energy. Sparing and appropriate use of emojis giphies to express a point can really lighten the mood and draw people in. Whatever you see on insta / twitter - think about how you can use that visual idea on group chat.

 

Offer some post formats. 

For example, an update could be:

Just done:

Next up:

Concerns/blockers: 

Headers up:

 

Or perhaps:

Goal: We’re trying to X

Problem: But it’s proving hard to Y

Action: So next step is Z

 

Use your own version of hashtagging to help people understand what kind of post it is e.g. putting this kind of tag or title at the top of the post

#question

#decision

#request

#update

Hashtags denote channel on some platforms so you might need to use another symbol. 

 

Model it - show people over and over again how to use group chat by using it yourself. Whatever you want people to do - do it 10 times yourself! Be quick to respond so people get a positive result from choosing to engage.

 

Summarise long threads with a #summary tag to make it easy for people to get the gist without reading the whole thing. Or use tl:dr (too long didn’t read) to give a summary at the top of something long. 

 

Enrol some group chat amplifiers to help you. Find people who are open/receptive and perhaps using it well already. Encourage them to model good use of chat and to respond to your posts. Respond to theirs and model further.

 

Shift some key comms onto chat. This forces people to go to chat to get it and encourages them to engage with other stuff. 

And/or develop some regular group chat rhythms and routines e.g. Monday morning chat check in or Friday 4pm ‘drinks’.

 

Edutain people. From thought provoking illustrations e.g. gaping void to fascinating articles with your commentary on what you found interesting, you can both engage people in group chat and also sow the seeds for other mindset shifts.

 

Be personal, be real. Use group chat to find out how people are. Tell people how you are. Ask them to describe their week in weather or temperature. Ask them what their best win has been this week. Ask them what they are doing about self care. Show people this is about each and every person and give them a question that helps them reflect. 

 

Be persistent. You’re shifting mindsets and behaviours and that does just take time. They might not be responding, but they may well be reading and the ground is softening.

Soon, it will become faster than everything else. And then you're off.