22 LISTENING TO OUR DIRECTORS AND PRINCIPALS | BDO LLP
INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
Some of the attendees referred to the overwhelming amount of information, data, knowledge and communications that people work through each day.
For example, one individual receives three prompts a week to do their timecards: one from their Team Leader, one from their Stream and one from their regional SBU Another example shared was what it feels like to receive BDO Global messages, an LT message, a Head of Stream message, a Head of Region message, a Head of Department message and a Head of Team message, on top of functional BAU messages There was appreciation that effective levels of communication is vital to business success Some people responded well to having reminders – for example when one Lead Partner summarises what the key things that people need to focus on in their weekly call – whereas others think that multiple reminders are unnecessary They acknowledged there would be another shift in this as we move to hybrid and agile working. For example, if you’re in a Hub collaboration zone for a day, you may have hundreds of emails waiting for you from people working at their laptop at home.
Ideas or personal experiences shared included:
– Promote new ‘rules of engagement’: how to use the different methods of individual and team communications (e.g. use of Teams, phone calls and emails) in an Agile Working world – Teams calls are 30 minutes, phone calls are five minutes; encourage people to choose their method of contact carefully
– Consider ‘no Teams Fridays’ (or similar) in your own team
– Avoid the Email Avalanche: consider our personal email behaviours, given the number of hours spent clearing emails where we have been cc’d without good cause – Encourage local lead partners to provide short weekly blasts that are amplified by monthly local ones. Emails are like a computer game with no ending and no prize, so why are we all so addicted? “
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