How Microsoft Teams & Slack Mirror Your Organization's Culture

Would you be surprised if I could tell you how well your organization works by looking at Microsoft Teams or Slack?

It’s a little bit of a parlor trick, in the sense that it doesn’t tell the full story, but it gets pretty close to identifying where friction exists.

The “how” behind this trick is simple: Microsoft Teams or Slack mirrors the culture of your organization.

The “why” is packed full of nuance, although it likely fits into these buckets:

• The Covid-19 pandemic threw a wrench into in-person collaboration and camaraderie
• Someone started using it as an early adopter it spread organically
• You needed a chat solution back in the 2010s

So, how is it possible to tell how well the organization runs?

It hinges on the level of intentionality behind how you built and use Microsoft Teams or Slack, as both of these platforms can:

• Superficially solve what Skype did 15 years ago
• Centralize and tightly integrate how your organization does business

In the fall, I suggested taking another look at how your organization uses Slack or Teams, and shared a self-assessment that you and your team can take.

I encourage you to do the self-assessment from that past newsletter by answering each of the questions below.

1. Are you using Slack or Teams for real time notifications when data changes instead of relying on email alerts?
2. Are you using Slack or Teams channels to organize discussions by project or department to reduce clutter and improve focus?
3. Do you send quick video and screen share messages to provide async feedback?
4. Have you integrated dashboards or visualizations directly into your Slack or Teams channels for quick access and referencing in discussions?
5. Are you leveraging bots with generative AI to help employees with their tasks?

If you answer “sort of” or “no” to any of those questions, it’s a sign that you’re underutilizing the potential that Slack and Teams can offer purely from a systems perspective.

However, the real underutilized potential is how you can start to unlock greater productivity with the most valuable asset that you have: your people.

TLDR: Your organization’s culture is mirrored by Microsoft Teams or Slack. If you want to influence cultural change, intentionally looking at Teams or Slack as a hub is critical.