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As I’ve said dozens of times before, we love to blame technology because it can’t blame us back.

Against that backdrop, I love this Fast Company piece about how the PR firm Idea Grove tamed the chaos of constant notifications. To quote:

We set new rules for communication. We defined a specific role for each of our communication tools. Slack and email, as well as our project management tool, Teamwork, would be used exclusively for asynchronous communication. A same-day or next-morning response would always be sufficient for these channels, and no one should expect a response sooner than that. If a manager needed a response within an hour or two, they were to send a text. If they needed an immediate response, they were to pick up the phone and call. No exceptions.

In a word, yes. Among Idea Grove’s most essential moves: recognizing the difference between manager and maker time—a key point in Reimagining Collaboration. Of course, I would love to know the spokes to which it has tied Slack—its internal collaboration hub.I suspect that the it is already embracing the Hub-Spoke Model of Collaboration.

Simon Says: Start viewing collaboration holistically.

Regardless of where we work, creating and enforcing rules are paramount to collaborating effectively. Blame tech all you want, but you’ll never make any progress unless your organization looks at collaboration holistically.