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Guide: why and how to implement communication agreement

Article cover with office meeting meme on it

I know three types of communication: personal, team-based, and cross-team. We spend on them from a couple of hours to the entire workday, depending on the role, process maturity, and the lunar phase. Each type has its specifics. For example, I’ve already published a separate article about 1–1 communications.

Still, there are also some common questions for all forms of communication: when it is appropriate to write a message and when it’s better to wait; when it’s acceptable to use a messenger, and in which situations it’s preferable to send an email or schedule a conference call — and lots of others.

In this article, I want to discuss:

I will also provide an example of an agreement that I’ve used in my department and break down why it was written that way.

I will not cover support, social media, sales, and PR communications — when they happen with potential clients, end-users, or a broader audience. Although there might be some overlaps, like creating guides and learning communication as a skill, these contexts are quite different. It would be too extensive to try to cover them in a single article. If you are interested in these topics, there might be some useful articles on the Intercom blog.

I will not address the topic of writing documentation, nor articles. Although I find them as a form of asynchronous communication, they are usually treated as separate areas. These subjects are also quite extensive and specific, deserving their own articles.

Oh, and there won’t be any content about public speaking. Also, not this time.

Why should we agree on communications

Briefly, because people are different and have various communication habits. If we don’t establish common rules and try to adapt to them, problems will arise.

Lets say, I’ve spent my entire career in large corporations, where I’m used to hold all the communications via email. My colleague has worked in startups where the entire companies could fit in one room, and for him, it’s easier to approach someone directly or just shout out loud from his workplace instead of writing. However, circumstances brought us together in a mid-sized company, where the rest of our team is shocked by what’s happening.

That was and example of a local difference, but there are also global cultural differences. Some people tend to express their thoughts ambiguous, while others prefer to be straightforward. Some might be punctual to seconds, while others interpret “within half an hour” as “by midnight tonight.” Such differences can even arise between two individuals with similar backgrounds: those who have lived their whole lives in big cities, graduated from technical universities, and worked for a few years in local IT giants.

So, numerous factors can trigger differences in communication: education, region, religion, family, work, personality — essentially any variation in past experiences. These differences in experience and, consequently, in expectations, can lead, at best, to misunderstandings and inefficiency, and at worst, to conflicts, dismissals, and halted work.

It has been discussed innumerous times that diversity positively impacts team performance in the long run. But even if this doesn’t convince you, the opportunity to hire people who are very similar to each other is limited — you’ll have to adapt.

As I mentioned earlier, work-related communications take up to 2–8 hours daily, even if you’re not working in sales, support, or social media. This includes meetings and conference calls, messages in chats and emails, comments on tasks and merge requests — a variety of forms involving two or more participants. Since we spend so much time communicating, it makes sense to do it well to achieve better results.

On a personal level, you can improve your communications by training them as a skill. This is a broad topic, ranging from specific recommendations on writing business emails to psychological theories. Respected authors have written numerous books on this subject, so we won’t delve deep into it this time.

On a team level, having a communication agreement helps. This is when participants find a common ground that makes communication comfortable for everyone and suitable for business specifics, and they agree to follow the resulting rules and recommendations.

What (else) should you know about communication agreements

As a manager, I look at communications as the interface between the elements of the system I am responsible for. The purpose of having an agreement is to ensure that all the elements can communicate well with the others. Otherwise, interactions will sometimes cause failures. At this level, it doesn’t matter what are the elements or subsystems within, as long as they follow the common interface. This approach allows us to embrace the diversity of people and teams.

A communication agreement serves as a common ground for the entire system or some of its parts, subsystems. It can be quite local: two people agreeing on how they conduct their one-on-one meetings. It can also be highly global: the entire company follows a common corporate policy. Multiple agreements can overlap: we communicate like this in the company, like that within the team, and you and I can communicate specifically like this in our 1–1's.

Ideally, the local and global agreements should align, with the local ones providing specific details within the scope of the global agreement. It’s also okay if sometimes they counter — it’s not an easy task to create a global agreement that is useful and convenient in all circumstances. If a local agreement contradicts the global one, the main points to consider are:

  1. Keep such contradictions to a minimum. The more mind splits, the harder it becomes to avoid mistakes.
  2. Ensure that the contradictions are not critical. For example, avoid transmitting customer data or sensitive task details in casual messengers, but it’s okay to setup some alert integrations.

It’s challenging for me to provide specific metrics regarding the quantity and quality of contradictions if they arise. I can’t suggest anything better than to think critically, use common sense or consult with colleagues when needed.

How to create a communication agreement

You can take the example below this part and adapt it to suit your needs. Alternatively, you can create a document from scratch, answering the following questions:

There are several ways to create the document. Two common approaches are:

  1. You draft the document independently, present it to the team for discussion, resolve any disagreements, and then finalize and approve it.
  2. Organize a brainstorming session where everyone contributes their initial ideas. Then, work together to refine these ideas, resolve disagreements, and finally, approve the document.

You can carry out most of the process asynchronously or, vice versa, almost entirely synchronously. It depends on the current team norms and your desired approach for the future. Unlike the next section, there are no specific answers here; it all depends on your unique circumstances.

Example

This agreement was initially written for the development department I managed. It went through several iterations. I have translated and edited the latest version to better suit the purpose of this article.

In some places, you may come across something like more details: link. We had more detailed internal documentation on these topics. I don’t provide the links themselves but thinks that it’s important to show their placeholders.

Give feedback

If you dislike a process, decision, or someone’s action, please let them know. If problems are left unresolved, they accumulate and grow.

Vice versa, if you like something, share your positive feedback. It will encourage your colleagues and foster a positive atmosphere.

Criticize privately, praise publicly

It is better to provide negative feedback during 1–1’s. On the other hand, give positive feedback in front of others or in general chat rooms.

Criticize actions

Avoid personal attacks as people tend to become defensive when criticized personally. To achieve the desired results, focus on actions.

No

Yes

Learn more about giving feedback: link.

Always Respond

This is a so-called “stupid rule”. If an asynchronous message requires no response, then do not reply. In Slack or Telegram, you can just use emojis on the message as acknowledgments. If a response is expected, reply. Even in non-urgent channels, responses are expected within one working day. If you’re busy, reply with something like, “Thanks, I’ve got your message. I have some urgent business to be solved first. I’m going to look into this and respond properly within 3 days.”

Write Clearly

Try to put one complete thought in each sentence. Use simple words and avoid ambiguous interpretations. Present facts instead of judgments: “completed in 3 minutes” instead of “quickly.” This increases the likelihood that your message will be understood correctly and that your recipient will be able to respond appropriately.

Summarize Meetings

When you have a meeting or call, document the decisions, agreements, and tasks discussed. Afterward, share the summary as a message or document accessible to all participants. Invite others to add to and correct the summary.

No: Send the summary of the meeting on it-all-inbox.

Yes: Sum up the meeting in the project or team channel, or send as email to all meeting participants and interested colleagues.

Invite the Relevant People

If someone is needed for decision-making, invite them to the meeting. If someone is interested in the outcome but may not influence it, providing them with the summary may be sufficient. Discuss this when planning the meeting. Others will likely be okay with just the summary.

If you are going to make decisions on a call, but there will be more than 8 participants, try reducing their number. Some obvious ways are:

  1. Make the meeting agenda more specific. It’s usually better to have 3 30 minutes long meetings with 5 participants each than one 60 minutes long meeting with 10 participants.
  2. Ask participants to delegate their questions to others. If someone has only one question to discuss, they may be able to pass the responsibility to another participant and wait for the summary.

If the purpose of the meeting is to share some information, and a few participants are going to speak, consider making an email or a document out of it. You can still arrange a meeting for Q&A purpose.

Control Your Emotions

If you feel strong emotions yourself while reading a message, or it seems like your peer is full of them, it’s better to communicate further verbally. If it turns out that emotions only seemed to you, it’s no big deal, you’ll just discuss the topic quicklier. If they were indeed present, it’s easier to address them in person. When speaking, you can control your tone, understand emotions, and react appropriately.

Disable Notifications

Messengers, email, comments in task trackers and merge requests are all asynchronous communication methods. In asynchronous communication, it’s okay not to respond immediately. Therefore, it is recommended to:

Plan to check your email twice a day, during less productive times. For example, after lunch and before leaving the office. Check chats every few hours.

Batching incoming messages allows you to handle them more efficiently. With notifications disabled, you won’t be distracted. Scheduling time to review messages helps you manage them, rather than them managing you.

If something genuinely important comes in, you won’t miss it — people will find you.

Choose the Right Channel

Do you want to discuss something with more than one person? Have a meeting or a call. Otherwise, there’s no guarantee that everyone will respond timely and the conversation won’t go in circles.

Typical synchronous communication: schedule a meeting for the next day or later. Don’t forget to consider the peers’ time zone.

Typical asynchronous communication: write in Slack.

Typical asynchronous communication for designers or product managers: write in the project or team channel in Telegram.

Important asynchronous communication: create a thread in email.

Urgent synchronous communication: agree on a call in a messenger at the earliest suitable time slot.

Important and urgent synchronous communication: call the person in a messenger or on a phone using table of contacts.

Slack

List of channels: link.

Instructions: basics, advanced.

When writing in a thread, remember that everyone mentioned in the thread or the parent message will receive a notification.

If a person is not mentioned in the thread or parent message, they won’t see the conversation. If you want them to see it, mention them. Once is enough.

Telegram

List of chats: link.

Most people use the same accounts for personal purposes. Use delayed messages or set a reminder to write in the chat during working hours.

Email

Archive emails right after replying. If you need to create a task after reading and replying to an email, do it, and don’t keep the email in your inbox.

Update the email subject to match the subject of the conversation.

Avaya

Set the ringtone volume to the minimum level. You will still notice the call, but it won’t distract the entire floor.

Smartphones

For the same reason, we keep our phones silent in the office.

Meetings

It’s okay to decline a meeting and ask to reschedule for a more suitable time, especially if it’s the third meeting planned for the day.

The meeting organizer shares the agenda with all participants in advance and adds Zoom link to the description.

Analyzing the example

I wouldn’t say that our agreement was extensive, but it helped synchronize expectations and was useful, especially for newbies.

My team worked in multiple cities across different time zones. Some team members were constantly relocating. We aimed to establish communication with a focus on remote and asynchronous work. At the same time, many of our team members used to work together in the same room with their previous colleagues, and we tried to consider this aspect too. These two reasons explain the balance between synchronous and asynchronous communications in our agreement.

We valued high a feedback as a tool for continuous improvement. That’s why the document starts with these points. Additionally, we wrote a separate doc about giving and receiving feedback because criticism and negative feedback can potentially lead to conflicts.

Transparency was also an important value. Therefore, we take several sections to cover organizing meetings, taking notes, and sharing information.

I twice failed to get product managers, designers, and editors on board with the corporate Slack. So, we used both Slack and Telegram, and this is also reflected in the document.

I tried to formulate the headings catchy and boldly to make the message clearer and more memorable.

The whole document was written in a directive manner to bring the thoughts more directly. However, anyone could make anything in other way if they thought that it was more appropriate in a concrete situation.

How to use the agreement

We provided the agreement as one of the first items during the onboarding process for new employees. This approach addressed many questions and helped them integrate into the team faster.

The doc was publicly available for other teams we collaborated with, so they could also synchronize their communication expectations when working with us. Anyone could refer to specific points in the doc and the context behind them.

The doc itself changed over time because of retros and other events triggering updates. Anyone could suggest corrections or additions at any time, and such contributions were welcomed, even if they didn’t end up being included in the document.

Write down not only the existing practices but also the desired ones. This helps guide changes more predictably and clearly for those affected. For example, if you want to reduce the number of communication channels, describe this transition and its motivation.

Conclusion

Don’t forget that communication is also a skill that consists of various sub-skills, including writing and editing texts, facilitating meetings, describing thoughts verbally or with schemes, and many others. No document with agreements can replace the benefits of mastering these skills.

However, if your team doesn’t have a communication agreement yet, I hope I’ve provided enough arguments and recommendations to help you create one. These agreements, along with skill development, complement each other perfectly.

Now, tell me, what communication challenges do you encounter at work? How and why do you try to overcome them?

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If you want to talk on managing engineering teams or departments, designing systems, or improving your technical product, email me at laidrivm@gmail.com or message me on https://t.me/laidrivm.

Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/vladimir-lazarev/.

Peace!