“Why?”

The tasks we do every day are not isolated events. They fit into something larger that is the overarching reason for you doing it. Without that bigger picture, it doesn’t really make sense.

Yet every day in the workplace, people are collaborating out of context. Emails are being sent regarding tasks within larger work items. Slack is being used to discuss responses to client emails. And records of phone conversations talking about a particular project are being stored completely separate to where the rest of that project is being tracked.

When communication like this is happening out of context to the bigger piece of the puzzle, it creates confusion, inefficiencies, and means you’re not allowing your team to reach their potential.

So why don’t you question this?

Collaboration in context

Effective communication is the foundation of team collaboration. Even though tasks are done by many individuals, those individuals miss out on the strength of a team if they work in silos.

But communication is more than just knowing what is supposed to be done and making sure it happens. Micromanaging may work in short spurts, but requires a lot of effort and won’t elicit much enthusiasm amongst staff.

This is why context is so crucial. You can lay out the plans, goals and mission of the team for everyone to see, and see how everything fits inside of a bigger strategy. Everyone should see where their individual tasks fit within a context that makes sense at a broad level.

Context creates efficiency

Having context for work is not only helpful in knowing why you are doing what you are doing, but it’s also tremendously more efficient.

It's almost impossible to effectively discuss work when the critical details aren’t front-of-mind. Or to talk about the response to a difficult client email when that email isn’t right there. Or to draw on a colleague’s comment from last week that you just can’t locate right now.

If you are communicating outside of the context of the project—a phone call here, an isolated email there—then each piece needs to be explained every time. And when the task moves back to its bigger project you have to explain it all over again.