At its core, communication is a system in your company. But it is so important, I broke it out as its own foundation for operational excellence. I sincerely believe that at least half of all issues or roadblocks in a company stem from miscommunication or non-communicated expectations.

Confession: I hate Slack. The messaging app. It is the bane of my existence.

Slack, on its surface, is a helpful tool. Instant communication with your team. Channels for every topic and subject you could imagine. A handy place to throw out a gif when the situation calls for it. But, when used incorrectly, it quickly leads to chaos.

I remember the day that I realized how much I hated it. I, as COO, was on just about every channel in the business. And in those dozens of daily messages, someone would task me something or ask me a question. Then when they followed up, I’d have no recollection of what they were talking about and had to comb through multiple threads to find it. There was no clear expectation set for what was needed and by when.

And that, girls and boys, is because Slack is a walkie talkie. It can only effectively be used to send a simple message to an individual or your team.

“Hey, running a few minutes late to the meeting.”

“Did you send that email to Bob?”

“Lunch will be here at noon.”

“Happy birthday! Here’s a cat gif to make your day.”

Repeat after me: Slack is a walkie talkie. You need a map to go along with it to truly find your way.

“Good communication is the bridge between confusion + clarity.”

Your map needs to be able to house projects and assign clear tasks with clear due dates. This is where your actual work lives. Depending on your type of business, you may have a ticketing system or software for client orders, but for the business, you need a project management software. My favorite is and always will be Asana, but there are other options like Trello, Monday, and ClickUp, among others.

This project management tool provides clarity - it’s clear what project a task belongs to, a crystal clear due date assigned to a specific person, and any other details you could want to add. I use Asana for everything from running meetings with a customized agenda to employee onboarding to budget estimates.

Repeat after me: project management tools are the map. Slack (or Teams or Google Chat) is the walkie talkie. These two things together will streamline your communication and take you far.