How to Communicate While Working at Home

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When I was researching virtual communications for Can You Hear Me: How to Connect with People in a Virtual World, I had no idea that the transition from face-to-face communications to the digital would accelerate so suddenly because of a virus.

But here we are. Many organizations have effectively shut down their offices and told everyone to work from home. It’s a huge shift, though presumably a temporary one, until the worst of the spread of the disease is over, and there are many, many facets of the change to discuss. But in this post, I’m focusing on how to make the instant-telecommuting experience better in terms of communicating with your colleagues, your clients or customers, and the public if your role is public-facing.

1.First and most important, understand that virtual communications, especially text-based ones, are fundamentally different from face-to-face, in one important way. Face to face we convey emotion to each other — and therefore intent — mostly via unconscious means. We smile, we nod, we touch the other person’s arm. That’s how they know that we’re being nice or sarcastic, supportive or critical. And never forget — that’s what the other person cares about most of all: your intent. Not your precise words. Your intent.

Virtually, almost none of that intent comes through. When you send someone an email that…