How the Nozbe team uses modern technologies to communicate better and get more done.
By me (Michael Sliwinski). Published December 1, 2016.
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In this book I discuss the concept of “Pyramid of Communication” - which helps me and my team communicate effectively to get everything done. See Table of Contents
This book is based on my company’s concept of pyramid of communication, which I also discussed on the 18th episode of The Podcast. I later revisited the concept here and on the 65th episode of The Podcast. Based on all this, as well as frequent questions from readers about apps I use and recommend and apps I use at my company I decided to write this book.
Promo video - “Where are you based?”
Update in 2018: I was on stage at Mobiconf 2018 showing how I use iPad Only apps to work like this:
“No Office Apps” - Table of Contents
Below is the table of contents with quotes from my book. This way you’ll have a better “feel” of the book and its contents. You’ll quickly see why a simple article on the pyramid of communication wasn’t enough and I had to convert it to an entire book:
Introduction: Where are you based?
“Q: Where are you based? A: We don’t have an office. We all work from home…”
“Our mission is to help people get more done - we tweak anything we can to work better…”
Traditional Office: I can just walk to you!
“Talk is not cheap. Interrupting somebody costs time. Face-to-face talking is expensive…”
“Email is so last century… so at @Nozbe we try to avoid it for internal communication…”
Pyramid of Communication
“There are actually 5 levels of communication: between highest and lowest bandwidth.”
“Pyramid of communication: spend time on Level 1, less on Level 2, much less on Level 3, 4 & 5.”
Level 1: Deep Work
“Pyramid level 1: Communicate through work, it’s all about focus and apps.”
“Pyramid of Communication level 1: At this level we communicate through our work.”
“Level 1 - work asynchronously and get your own work done in uninterrupted chunks of time…”
Level 2: Feedback
“Level 2 of team communication is all about getting feedback without interrupting others…”
“Pyramid of Communication level 1: Ask for feedback in the most asynchronous way possible…”
“Level 2 - get feedback, define responsibility, DON’T communicate with everyone!”
Level 3: Back And Forth
“Level 2 of team communication - let’s chat about it using text…”
“Pyramid of Communication level 3: It’s all about quick feedback.”
“Level 3 is great for quick feedback as you’re finishing off your project or task.”
Level 4: Talk To Me
“Level 4 of team communication - it’s all about getting answers quickly with voice…”
“Pyramid of Communication Level 4: It’s all about convenience.”
“Level 4 is to iron out the details, but be respectful and schedule your voice calls…”
Level 5: Meetings
“Level 5 of team communication - let’s meet face to face now…”
“Pyramid of Communication Level 5: It’s all about having a good reason for each meeting…”
“Level 5 (#Meetings) is all about being prepared, getting feedback and NOT brainstorming…”
Level 5+: Reunion
“Reunions in an all-remote company: Twice a year, our entire team meets up for a week…”
“At @Nozbe reunions it’s all about connecting with each other and spending quality time together…”
Example: A Life of a Project at All Levels with Nozbe
“Simple @nozbe use case: how the marketing team organizes a small event for some of the users…”
A Different Example: Better code in Github
“Github: You work on code, you commit it, you review other commits. You add comments. At your own pace.”
Examples of Meetings done right and wrong
“Examples of #meetings: Spontaneous - when instant feedback and decisions are needed…”
“Examples of #meetings: Design Fight - a regular meeting dedicated to Nozbe design, UI and UX”
“Examples of #meetings: Stand up / Scrum meetings where our developers share every day…”
“Examples of #meetings done wrong: a company-wide all-hands meeting…”
Bonus: 5 Rules of effective communication
“Bonus chapter: Effective communication on a dispersed team — 5 general rules”
More Tips And Tricks: 7 Ways to improve interpersonal relations
“Bonus chapter: communication in a dispersed team: 7 rules for improving interpersonal relations”
Summary: Getting communication done
“How to get team communication done? Clearly define your levels of communication!”
Please let me know what you think! I wrote this book for you:
“No Office Apps” - version history
- 1 December, 2016 - official public release on this blog
- 26 September, 2016 - version 1.0 - first initial limited release for Nozbe customers