Get Out of the DMs: A Better Way to Communicate at Work

People Revert to DM's

It is wayyyy too easy for team members to just... not post in channels. They aren't used to it. They are thinking about "who do I need to message" instead of "what am I messaging about". This leads very often to random group chats and DM's. It's straightforward and makes sense.

But you don't want them using DM's. It's one of the organizational knowledge black holes. Where valuable information goes to die.

So how do you get people out of their DM's?

It's a little bit of a carrot vs. stick situation, and we always promote the carrot first.

Promote Transparency

There's an extremely small amount of messages that have actual information that would be sensitive to the other team members. Having conversations "out in the open" allow others to benefit from seeing what's going on across the team, and refer back to later if needed.

Being transparent also creates a sense of trust in the team. Create a culture where people don't feel like they need to talk behind each other's backs. We'll save that one for another blog...

Gently Redirect

Sometimes it's an honest mistake. Someone forgot, or wasn't sure where to send something, so they just choose your name, click "start chat", and go.

If this happens, the absolute best thing you can do is to NOT directly alleviate the reason for the message. Don't answer the question etc. Say, "Hey John, this should probably go over in the #operations channel. Would you mind sending it over there?". That's it. No discussion on the topic they originally sent about.

If they are... a little resistant or would rather "lead" them along, go start a message thread in the channel. "Hey John, saw your message, figured we should pick it up over here in #operations. For context, here's the original question: [insert original message here]". And continue answering there.

This does two things:

• Leads by example and shows them "how" to do it.
• Shows them the best way to get an answer from you is in the channel. NOT in a DM.

I generally like the first approach where you ask them to send it in a channel first, and choose the other option for repeat offenders.

Be the Adult

For as many times as we've complained about coworkers being childish, you don't have to play the game. We're at work, and we have a job to do, and we're trying to communicate in a new way. Be the change you want to see, lead from where you are, and stop letting others dictate how you work. Do not contribute to the chaos.

Reserve DM's for Private Conversations

This might go without saying, but create a habit of asking yourself "Is this a 'private conversation' between me and this other employee?" Or is it relevant to other employees? If it's "private", it is 100% fine to be in DM's. Sometimes you need an aside with someone to vent or commiserate. Just keep the team-relevant information out of DM's.

People are Posting in the Wrong Channel

You have the perfect setup. You have your teams configured with the right members, all the different channels you can think you might need, you get your team to commit to using it, and people keep posting things in the wrong channel!

That's not where this goes! It goes over here! How do these people get it wrong all the time?

Deep breath, we're all learning here. You are changing habits. They are trying.

Let's start with going back to what we were just talking about...

Gently Redirect

Sometimes channel names can be confusing. Sometimes people are between meetings and in a rush. Sometimes they just "don't care enough" to send it in the right channel.

Well, it's better than a DM. Little victories 🎉.

Gently redirect them to the right channel.

"I feel like this should probably go over in #hiring, could we pick it up over there?"

No chastising or blame, just redirection.

If this situation happens what seems like all the time, you might need to consider some other options:

You might have too many channels

I know, you Type A people love when you have things all organized and everything has a home. But sometimes too many channels create a bit of a "paradox of choice". Or to put it in American-terms "it's an all-you-can-eat buffet, where do you start?".

Too many channels can create that little bit of friction/mental load to the process, which can lead someone to just... pick one and throw it over the wall.

We generally promote the concept of: Start small and only add channels when it feels like it's necessary.

Some of those triggers could be:

• Too many conversations don't seem relevant to the channel they're happening in, but they don't have a better home at the moment.
• You find there's some sensitive conversations that should happen in a team/channel, just not this channel.
• People are getting annoyed or important information is getting lost.

Use that time to say, "It feels like this might warrant its own channel, what do you think?".

Spin it off, start using it, and see how it feels. Check in and adjust as necessary.

There's Too Much Noise!

We see and hear this one all the time. It just becomes a huge feed of information, it gets overwhelming and feels like the messy email inbox all over again. If you've gone through the steps above and slimmed out your channels, there's two likely causes of this:

• You probably need to tweak notification settings
• People aren't using tags properly

Notifications

Notifications out-of-the-box with Teams are generally... not great. But luckily, it's something you can customize and get working in a less noisy way.

There are overall Notification settings, and then there are Channel Notification settings. One of them sets your default preferences, and the other customizes notifications for a particular channel.

I am not going to spend much time here saying "turn this setting on, and this setting off" - there's way too much nuance to people's daily work habits to have a strong stance. But if things feel too noisy, start by making sure you only have notifications coming through if you are tagged in a message or reply.

Which leads me to...

Tagging

Tagging is much more powerful than you realize, and learning how to use them is a bit of a common courtesy everyone should take on themselves. When I say tagging, it's when you typento the message and you can tag an individual or a group of people. Here's how to think about the three "tiers" of messages we talk about:

• FYI (For Your Information) – No tag, meant to be read passively or when convenient.
• Action Needed – Tagging an individual, meaning you need their attention relatively quickly.
• Priority Alert – Tagging the whole channel, meaning it’s important for everyone or at least one person to respond.

Just getting this practice right can save a TON of headache when combined with good notification settings. If someone needs my attention, they tag me, and my notifications are configured to get my attention. From there it's just personal preference. Some channels, I like to see each message regardless if I'm tagged, so I configure it that way.

You have the power to make things less noisy.

Wrap Up

You're not crazy for seeing these things happen, they're common. We're retraining people's habits and teaching them something brand new. Here's a quick summary of how to approach these situations.

• Gentle redirection - get people back on track in a friendly, but direct way.
• Start small - less structure can be an okay way to start. Keep your eye out for opportunity to spin discussions off into a different channel, as opposed to being ultra prescriptive and having too many channels.
• Help folks understand a base level of tagging + notifications - Yes, it's slightly more complex than sending an email, but it's so worth it.

Hope that helps!