Your Communication Protocol Can Make or Break Your Team’s Productivity - With Theresa M. Ward

In this engaging episode, Brian Nelson-Palmer interviews Theresa Ward, founder of Fiery Feather, who reveals how communication protocols can transform team productivity and effectiveness.

As a team effectiveness coach with experience across multiple industries, Theresa shares how structured systems combined with emotional intelligence create thriving workplaces.

The conversation explores practical steps for crafting and implementing a communication protocol, making this episode a must-listen for anyone looking to streamline communication and boost team efficiency.

The Video

The Audio/Podcast

References In This Episode

Episode Digest

How Communication Protocols Can Transform Your Team’s Productivity

In today’s fast-paced, technology-driven workplace, clear and effective communication is essential for productivity. Yet, many teams struggle with delays, misunderstandings, and unnecessary interruptions that hinder efficiency. A communication protocol—or situational communication guide—can help by establishing agreed-upon rules for when and how different types of communication should occur.

This structured approach doesn’t just streamline workflows; it also fosters better collaboration, reduces frustration, and minimizes wasted time. Whether your team operates remotely, in an office, or across multiple locations, having a shared set of communication agreements can eliminate guesswork and ensure everyone is aligned.

Why Communication Protocols Matter

Without clear communication guidelines, team members often experience confusion and inefficiency. Common workplace complaints such as, “I never got a response,” “I didn’t know this was urgent,” or “This meeting could have been an email” arise when there’s no structured way to handle different types of communication.

A communication protocol sets expectations for how team members should initiate, respond to, and escalate communication. It outlines which tools to use for different types of messages and clarifies how to handle urgent matters versus routine updates.

“A communication protocol is a shared set of agreements that guides how you initiate, respond to, and escalate communication—both through conversation and technology.”

With the rise of remote work and digital tools, workplace communication has become more fragmented. Some employees rely on Slack, while others prefer email or video calls. Without a clear agreement, messages can get lost, misinterpreted, or ignored.

A well-crafted communication protocol solves these issues by providing clear guidelines for when to use specific channels, how quickly to respond, and what qualifies as an emergency.


The Power of Communication Protocols in the Workplace


1. Establish a Clear Communication Protocol for Your Team

To ensure smooth collaboration, create a simple document that outlines how communication should flow within your team.

How to create a communication protocol:

  • List all communication channels available to your team. Examples: Slack, Microsoft Teams, email, phone calls, in-person meetings, video meetings.

  • Define the purpose of each channel. When should Slack be used instead of email? When is a phone call appropriate?

  • Set response time expectations. For instance, Slack messages should be responded to within two hours, while emails can be answered within 24 hours.

  • Determine escalation pathways. If someone doesn’t respond in the expected timeframe, what’s the next step?

This doesn’t need to be a complex policy—a simple shared Google Doc or internal wiki page is sufficient. The goal is to provide clarity and consistency in how messages are sent and received.

“If you don’t have a communication protocol for your team, you can create one—regardless of your position. Clear guidelines reduce frustration and improve efficiency.”

2. Balance Synchronous and Asynchronous Communication

One of the biggest challenges in team communication is knowing when real-time interaction is necessary versus when an asynchronous approach (where people respond on their own time) is more efficient.

Key Differences

  • Synchronous communication (real-time): Phone calls, video meetings, in-person conversations. Best for urgent matters, brainstorming, and sensitive discussions that require emotional context.

  • Asynchronous communication (delayed response): Email, Slack messages, recorded video updates. Best for updates that don’t require immediate action, documentation, or when working across different time zones.

A communication protocol should clarify which method to use in different situations. For example:

  • Use Slack or Teams for quick check-ins and non-urgent questions.

  • Use email for formal documentation or when a longer response is required.

  • Use a meeting only when collaboration or discussion is necessary—otherwise, an email or Slack message may be more efficient.

  • Use phone calls or video meetings when clarity, tone, or urgency is important.

“Asynchronous communication can boost efficiency, but there are times when a quick phone call can save hours of back-and-forth emails.”

3. Define What Constitutes an Urgent Matter

Many workplace frustrations stem from misunderstandings about urgency. What’s critical to one person might not be urgent to another.

To avoid miscommunication, your team’s protocol should define:

  • What qualifies as an emergency. Example: “An urgent issue is anything that directly impacts client deliverables, system outages, or high-priority deadlines.”

  • How to escalate an issue. Example: “If a Slack message goes unanswered in two hours, escalate to a phone call.”

  • What NOT to interrupt people for. Example: “General questions that aren’t time-sensitive should be posted in a Slack thread, not sent as a direct message.”

By clearly defining these rules, teams prevent unnecessary stress and interruptions while ensuring urgent issues get addressed promptly.

“Instead of labeling something as ‘emergency vs. non-emergency,’ think of it as levels of escalation. Your team should know when and how to escalate communication without overusing urgent channels.”

4. Normalize Communication Protocols Beyond Your Team

A communication protocol isn’t just for internal teams—it can also apply to clients, external partners, and other departments.

For example, if you work with clients, you can create a mini communication guide that includes:

  • Best ways to contact your team (e.g., “Email for non-urgent matters, phone for immediate issues”).

  • Expected response times (e.g., “Replies within 24 hours on weekdays”).

  • Escalation process for high-priority issues.

This ensures everyone involved knows what to expect, reducing frustration and improving overall efficiency.

5. Encourage Adoption and Accountability

A communication protocol is only effective if people actually follow it. To encourage adoption:

  • Lead by example. Managers and team leaders should model the correct behavior.

  • Make it easily accessible. Store the protocol in a shared drive or internal system where everyone can find it.

  • Regularly review and refine. As teams grow and technology changes, revisit and update the protocol periodically.

  • Offer feedback and course corrections. If someone repeatedly ignores the protocol, have a private conversation to reinforce expectations.

“A good leader is a ‘chief reminding officer’—repeating communication expectations until they become second nature for the team.”

Communication protocols are a simple yet powerful way to improve team efficiency, reduce miscommunication, and create a smoother workflow. By establishing clear guidelines, balancing synchronous and asynchronous communication, defining urgency, and ensuring accountability, teams can significantly enhance their productivity.

If your workplace struggles with slow response times, unnecessary meetings, or miscommunications, consider implementing a communication protocol—it may be the missing piece to a more effective and productive team.

Chapters

03:45 Understanding Communication Protocols

07:45 The Importance of Communication Protocols

11:45 Asynchronous vs Synchronous Communication

15:51 Establishing Personal Communication Protocols

19:27 Emergency Communication Protocols

25:38 Empowering Communication in Crisis

26:25 Understanding the Waterline Concept

28:41 Communication Protocols with External Partners

29:28 Organizing Communication Protocols

30:14 Managing Non-Compliance with Protocols

32:57 The Importance of Praise and Criticism

36:32 Personal Communication Pet Peeves

40:51 The Purpose Behind Communication Protocols

Today’s Guest

Theresa m. WarD

Team Effectiveness Coach & Founder of Fiery Feather

Theresa M. Ward is a team effectiveness coach and the founder of Fiery Feather, a consultancy dedicated to helping teams build strong systems and improve interpersonal intelligence. With over a decade of experience in the financial technology industry, she has worked in roles spanning sales, product innovation, and strategic training—gaining a deep understanding of what makes teams thrive.

Since launching Fiery Feather in 2017, Theresa has been known as her clients' Chief Momentum Officer, facilitating workshops and driving initiatives that create lasting organizational change. Her expertise extends across industries, including utilities, non-profit, media, hospitality, and healthcare, allowing her to bring a broad, human-centered perspective to team development.

Beyond her work, Theresa is a certified yoga instructor, avid book lover, and dedicated fur-mom. She finds balance outside of work through fly fishing in the North Georgia Mountains with her fiancé.

Connect with her at:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theresa-m-ward/
Website: fieryfeather.com

Why Subscribe To The Email List: Brian shares separate hacks, tips, and actionable learning exclusively for his email subscribers. Sign up so you don’t miss out!

About The Creator/Host: I’m Brian. At age 4, I was diagnosed with insulin dependent (type 1) diabetes and told that my life was going to be 10-20 years shorter than everyone else. As a kid I took time for granted, but now as an adult, time is the most precious thing that I have. After spending a career hands-on in the trenches as a leader at all levels, I now train Productivity Gladiators to level up their careers. Graduates wield superpowers in time management, practical leadership, communication, & productivity. If what you’ve seen here intrigues you, reach out, let’s chat!

“Time is the currency of your life, spend it wisely.”

 

Transcript

Brian Nelson-Palmer (00:06)

I'm Brian Nelson Palmer on this show. I share personal practical productivity skills. And in this episode, we're talking about tips for your communication protocol, which can make or break you and your team's productivity. And with me on the show today is Theresa Ward, who's a team effectiveness coach and the founder

of fiery feathers. So, I'm going let you introduce yourself. Thanks so much for joining me on the show and talk about your connection with communication protocols.

Theresa M. Ward (00:35)

Love it. Thanks, Brian, for having me. I love right off the top all of your alliteration there, all of the great P words that have to do with productivity. And obviously you can tell I'm a fan of like memorable alliterative things as well. Like the sound, you're a fiery feather. Yeah.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (00:46)

Fiery feather.

Exactly. Love it.

Theresa M. Ward (00:50)

Feather is a team

effectiveness consultancy. And what I think about the two pillars of team effectiveness, it's structured systems, you standard operating procedures, all of those really functional systems that help us be efficient and clear. But it's also that secondary pillar of the soft skills, interpersonal, emotional intelligence, how we interact with one another. So oftentimes I'll get called in by clients to help build a new

onboarding process or to help document some new project management checklist. And really what's happening is people aren't seeing each other. They're not asking questions. They're not developing empathy. And so the communication protocol,

or I kind of like to refer to it as a situational communication guide so it can soften it a little bit because it really should be more of a guide than like a policy. That is something that can help with both of those pillars. So I'm excited to talk more about it today.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (01:48)

fair and right.

Yes.

Makes perfect sense. So what what would you say makes you different from all those other people in the space?

Theresa M. Ward (02:01)

gosh, I love this space. I'm glad that the space is so big. I started my career in FinTech and within that singular industry, I did sales and I did product and I did innovation and I played a lot of different roles, but I always ended up doing the training in each of them. So really I am a passionate student about

experiential education, human psychology, adult learning theory. So I took those training and facilitation skills that I learned in one industry and picked them up and kind of said, can I apply these in a bunch of other spaces? And that's where I think I've been able to add value

And humans are humans everywhere. So I love being able to kind of translate these case studies and skills that I've learned in these different industries to, you know, just kind of the human population, because we all want the same things that work. We all get slowed down or bogged down by the same things that work. Whether you use Slack or you use Microsoft Teams, we all just want to be able to get in touch with each other, get a response and get on with our day, right?

Brian Nelson-Palmer (02:48)

Yeah.

Yes. And you know, oftentimes some industries use the tools different and or better than other industries. So if you stay in your silo, you might not get some of that good stuff that you kind of bring from all the different industries, which is cool.

Theresa M. Ward (03:18)

Yeah.

Yeah, I think that's true. I do think that there are industry norms that don't really get spoken out loud. And if you go from one health care to another health care to another health care, it's just kind of assumed that, yes, this is how everybody does it. But you throw in, you know, a media startup from Silicon Valley into a big hospital system in the Northeast and you're going to get some really fun disruption.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (03:46)

Absolutely. Well, let's talk about communication protocols then. And I like that you soften the language, but for the purposes of the episode today, let's say communication protocol, because ultimately these are the guide rails. It is the protocol that you're having people follow. And it's certainly a guide and somebody's not going to be fired if they don't follow the protocol. But at the same time, you do need that structure.

And so right off the bat, Theresa, just for those people who might not have heard this term, what is a communication protocol and why is it important for your productivity?

Theresa M. Ward (04:21)

The thing to know about a communication protocol, an effective, realistic communication protocol, is that it is a shared document.

A communication protocol is a set of agreements that is somewhat democratically determined, that guides how you initiate communication, how you respond to communication, and how you escalate communication using both your human voice or fingers and how you also use the technology platforms or the tech stack.

that's available to you and your organization.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (04:55)

So communication protocol, you have this agreement. What does that look like in practicality?

Theresa M. Ward (05:01)

It's really simple. honestly think it's a Word doc, Google doc, you know, maybe a basic spreadsheet, but don't get too many, too many columns going. Really, it's just kind of a table that in the first column, you have the technology platform. So for example, that might be Slack, that might be Microsoft Teams, that might be as specific as meetings in person, meetings on the phone.

meetings on video. So you've outlined all of the different communication channels that you have available to you. Email, of course, you all of those different things. And then in the second column, you've got the specifics of when and how to best use that specific communication platform. So I think if you end up with a Word doc that's got kind of a two column table, you've got maybe a few things at the top.

that outline, hey, here's how this was developed, here's who it's for, here's how to reference it or best use it. For example, it might be in situations like when a new employee gets onboarded, obviously, but it may also be impactful when you're starting a new project and you're gathering together a bunch of different folks from different departments who have not regularly communicated before. And then at the bottom of the table after you've kind of outlined everything,

There's always going to be disclaimers, exceptions to the rule. So yes, I agree. Let's call it a protocol, but know that there's always going to be these outliers. So good to acknowledge those instead of pretending they don't exist, I

Brian Nelson-Palmer (06:36)

Yeah. And why is this important? What difference does this make?

Theresa M. Ward (06:41)

Well, I will say that the times when I have seen this be most impactful is the times when you hear a team starting to make a lot of excuses and the excuses seem to be based on responsiveness or there's like a sense of blame about, well, I couldn't deliver that on time because I couldn't get a hold of Tommy or

I just went ahead and reached out to the client because so-and-so never responded to my Slack message those types of things. So if you start to see a pattern where, I called you but you didn't get back to me or I emailed you but you never got back to me.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (07:25)

Yeah.

Theresa M. Ward (07:25)

Those

are the triggers or the indicators that we really need a communication protocol. My hope is that your listener will develop one of these before those excuses start to happen, but it's okay whether you're in proactive or reactive mode. It can be helpful in either situation.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (07:40)

And you know, I've got a couple things for you listening right now on this. Go ahead and start.

anybody can initiate this discussion and it will help with my other point is one of my most popular. I have four signature keynotes that I give and I speak at conferences around the country and the one that is the most popular right now is this meeting could have been an email and we talk all about meeting effectiveness, right? And what I want to point out is one of the things about a communication protocol that's really helpful is one of the lessons I teach in that talk is about

Theresa M. Ward (08:01)

I it.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (08:13)

asymmetrical versus symmetrical communication, right? So asymmetrical means I send you an email and then you can read it and respond to it at a time that is good for you later. That's asymmetrical where symmetrical is like Theresa and I right now are having symmetrical communication live. And so that live communication would be a meeting. So when I say this meeting, which is symmetrical, could have been an email, which is asymmetrical.

I share that because asymmetrical is more efficient for the team's productivity. So the other thing that you get with the communication protocol also kind of have the protocol will help you with what needs to be a meeting. What are things that I need to interrupt people for versus what are things that I don't need to interrupt people for?

Theresa M. Ward (08:45)

OOF

Brian Nelson-Palmer (08:59)

So that's just food for thought. Theresa, any thoughts, any yes ands on that? What are your thoughts?

Theresa M. Ward (09:04)

I have a yes and and a yes, but yeah. Okay. So my yes and I love the distinction between symmetrical and asymmetrical. I have also called that synchronous or asynchronous my thought, my challenge is the

Brian Nelson-Palmer (09:06)

Okay, hit me. I like this. All right.

Theresa M. Ward (09:23)

blanket assumption that asymmetrical communication is always going to be more efficient than symmetrical communication Because we have all gotten caught up in the 14 back-and-forth emails that some where someone is trying to communicate something with context emotion sensitivity and it literally could have been a phone call that takes 37 seconds

Brian Nelson-Palmer (09:38)

Totally.

Yeah.

Theresa M. Ward (09:53)

instead

of the kicking back and forth and the misinterpretation of tone and things like that. And the reason that I want to call that out is just because what I see happening in generational communication trends, which Brian, I'm very curious to see if you see these same kinds of things, but for digital natives, so for millennials and younger, the go-to form of communication is asymmetrical or asynchronous.

text or slack message or an email first. And that comes along with this sense of, I'm respecting your privacy. I'm respecting your time, your flexibility, your work from home schedule. But it also means there's this weird

avoidance if someone does initiate symmetrical communication, an unannounced team's call, an unannounced phone call. And I don't want your listener or any of their direct reports to be afraid of symmetrical communication because in so many cases it can save time and save assumptions and emotions. Does that resonate with you?

Brian Nelson-Palmer (10:51)

Yeah.

On my side, I'm going preach sister. Yes, absolutely. That's a good point. And we talk about all the reasons why a meeting is the best form of communication. There are plenty of scenarios. It's not just let's get rid of meetings altogether. That's actually not productive. And what you gave is one of the many examples we talk about where yes,

Theresa M. Ward (11:07)

Okay.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (11:17)

this should be a meeting, make it a meeting.

Theresa M. Ward (11:20)

it depends right on your company culture, the size of your team and how much, know, are you making this communication protocol just for your team? Are you trying to make it for the entire department? Are you trying to make it for the entire company? But you can get pretty nuanced even beyond just meeting or non meeting because there are so many different types of meetings. It doesn't have to be sit down, put it on the calendar.

have all this anticipation for it, it literally can be, you know, I FaceTime you while you're walking the dog or I give you a call while you're driving to the dentist. Those things can be just as efficient. so I don't know if you would call that a meeting or if that's just.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (12:01)

Sure,

well, yes, or that could be a phone call or yeah, all of these different forms of communication. you know, while you're while you mentioned call you while I'm on the way to the dentist or something. And what I want to point out is that while many people might not and in many of the workplaces I've been in, I've been in a lot of workplaces and in many of them that I've been in and the many different teams, none of those teams had actually a written communication protocol.

And when I introduced it to the teams that I've been on, it's made a huge difference. So I'm assuming that you listening might or might not have had these things before. But what I want to point out now is you probably have a communication protocol just in the way that you operate in the world for yourself individually. Right. Like you might generally, if you're a millennial or you're on the younger side, you might just text people

have whole conversations just in text. And so that's your personal protocol. You have a way that you like to communicate. And so people have their own protocols. And so this concept isn't new. for, for Theresa, for this, if you're taking like your individual protocol, do you, do you have any thoughts offhand on any or tips on somebody's individual?

communication protocol, like any recommendations on what's good or not good for just the way that you do it personally.

Theresa M. Ward (13:21)

Yes, okay, so self-awareness is step one in everything that I do for a team. And so whether that's an individual contributor or that's a leader on the team, it is very good to write down or to take a mental inventory of, yeah, I do tend to text first. I tend to decline calls.

So to take a mental inventory of what your own preferences are then allows you to have a baseline of communication. Is that similar to most folks on my team? Am I more of the exception or am I more of the standard? So to your point, I don't think it's labeling it good or not good, but it is being able to bring it to the table, especially if you're the one initiating this, being able to say, you know what?

I have a strong preference for typed asynchronous communication. I'm realizing that that has places where it's most effective and places where it's not. then gathering like a small committee of maybe some peers, some direct reports, know, multi-level folks in your organization, getting a small committee together and saying, what is actually the best?

Brian Nelson-Palmer (14:13)

Sir.

Theresa M. Ward (14:29)

It's uncomfortable because what's the best is not always your own personal preference. For example, I am a huge fan of asynchronous video communication where you simply record three minutes of a message and instead of sending it, in a typed, paragraphical email or a Slack message, you just send the video. That way you get the benefit of the

vocal tone and the body language, but you didn't have to schedule a meeting for it. There are plenty of clients that I work with who you say video and their shoulders tense up and their voice gets all weird and all of a sudden they're not actually being themselves. So if that's counterproductive, you have to be aware of that, being willing to share that and saying, okay, I'll try and use video in this part of our communication protocol.

but everybody needs to know it's gonna be weird for a little while. So there's also that learning curve of getting used to the new protocol once it's established.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (15:29)

You know, on this same topic, I was in a really large organization and I ran a really large project that had, I don't know, there were like 4,000 people affected by the project and there were 26,000 people in the organization, right? And I was running this program where it was impossible for me to actually get a meeting with everyone at the same time. And so what we did is we did an internal video podcast where

Theresa M. Ward (15:45)

Right.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (15:51)

It was actually discussing, right? Just like you said, you said three minutes and in my mind, thought, yep, video broadcast. And what's great about that is some people like to watch, some people like to listen, and some people like to read. And what's amazing about the technology we have now is you can record a video and then you can send that and they can listen to it or they can watch it.

And then you can also drop the transcript into AI and it will give you a summary of the action items and the whatever else it is. So if they want to read, they can read the transcript. They can read the action items. Like it's possible for you to communicate more efficiently to everybody's different preferences.

That's a great tool that not many people use. So I love that you mentioned video because it's like, yes, absolutely.

Theresa M. Ward (16:36)

Yeah.

And I, okay, so this is a little bit outside of communication protocol, but what you just mentioned brings something up for me that I'm really curious how you're seeing it. So with the advent of AI and the incorporation of, this meeting is being recorded. It is being transcribed. It is being summarized by, you know, this artificial assistant. I have started to see this trend where then if I'm invited to a meeting,

an individual will be invited to a meeting. They will attend the meeting, but they will use the meeting time to do other things because they say, I'm just going to listen to the transcription or read the AI summary afterwards. And it's like at the top, I'm like, that sounds efficient, but it's very, in my opinion, counterproductive.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (17:20)

Yes.

Theresa M. Ward (17:28)

Have you seen that that happening? I mean, that it kind of breaks my heart.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (17:32)

it is. And at the same time, this drives back to this meeting could have been an email, a broadcast, a video message would have been more efficient for everybody since or everybody who's not. You didn't have to be there live.

Theresa M. Ward (17:36)

Don't be happy.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (17:44)

part of why a communication protocol is good, because unless you pose situations where you should consider this kind of communication, most people, especially in the older generations, there's only two ways that they communicate, email or meeting. And that's it. But there's so many more.

that people might not use. just that's what I'm seeing. I'm seeing the same thing as you're seeing. And I really just it's such a good indicator of, there's you should leverage some of these tools, these other tools you have.

Theresa M. Ward (18:13)

Now I will say for you listening, if you are going to leverage some of these more recently developed communication techniques, such as, I'm not going to attend the meeting, but I'm going to let my team just read the AI summary. One of the best things that I've seen is I saw a leader every morning, he blocks off an hour on his calendar and he calls it like communication catch up.

And it's the time when he's cleaning out his inbox, he's reviewing Slack messages, he's reading or listening to the transcriptions from meetings from the day before. And I love that that's normalized, that your day doesn't need to be filled with simply tasks and meetings. You have to create this white space for navigating all of these different communication messages that are now.

being available to you.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (19:08)

Totally. It's super important. please you be the spark to start recording your meetings because a lot of organizations and individuals have it like they're just opposed to being recorded necessarily. But if you record it, anybody who misses it, instead of you having to catch them up, there's a recording and by the way,

productivity hack shameless. one of those guys who listens and watches on two times or three times speed because I mean you might be listening to this episode on two times speed or three times speed and if you are right now I am applauding you right now. Well done because your brain can process that information faster than we can speak it necessarily. So yes, take advantage of that too if you're catching up on recording. if if if there is

Unless there is some sort of legal reason why you can't record, just record. Because then there's so many good reasons.

Theresa M. Ward (20:00)

the recording also helps us remember, especially if you're not on video, if you're not in person, the more technological or the more asymmetrical our communication gets, the more rude we let ourselves get. That is unfortunately why cyberbullying is a thing and people will just troll through.

YouTube, you know, comments and things like that. And I think if we are acting as if we are being recorded, I think it reminds us to be our best selves and to pay attention to one another and to really tune in and sort of, you know, sit up a little straighter and be like, I'm being recorded. And I don't mean that in a

Big Brother kind of fear-based way. I think it's just a way for us to remember that, you know, we need to show up and be our best selves with each other whenever possible.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (21:00)

true. And anything you put is going to be a reflection of your performance professionally. So yes, absolutely. Theresa, I want to jump into you. So you did a great job earlier describing what a communication protocol might look like, right? And so one of the things that is

I think super helpful. And I give, if you go back and listen to Maura, I did an episode with Maura Thomas who came on the show and she talked about the one thing that was one of the first times that I had heard reference. I've heard it called a communication protocol. I've heard it called a lot of things over the years. She called it a communication protocol and she said that emergency, who to contact an emergency is one of the, and how to contact them.

Theresa M. Ward (21:24)

Yeah!

Brian Nelson-Palmer (21:43)

is what qualifies as an emergency? So I want to note that because when you're talking about this, it's not just should you email or should you have a meeting, but at what point should you call the person, like what qualifies as an emergency? And so I thought that was a really good tip that she had. And so I want to yes, and with you then, Theresa, besides what qualifies as an emergency and how should you communicate in an emergency?

Theresa M. Ward (21:45)

Right.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (22:08)

What else goes into a communication protocol? What are your thoughts?

Theresa M. Ward (22:12)

Mm-hmm.

I don't think it's binary in most industries, okay? Like even in, you know, you've got your doctor and then you've got urgent care and then you've got the emergency room. And I think in a lot of cases, emergency is subjective. And hopefully you, the listener, you're hiring professionals who have a decent amount of discernment.

if, if you, I think if you frame it as how to escalate instead of, this is emergency versus non-emergency, it empowers the discernment of your direct reports. And then if they don't get it quite right, then it's a teaching opportunity. So for, I think it's nice to do it in like levels or stages. So maybe it's Slack first.

And if you don't get a response in X amount of hours, then escalate to a phone call or a text message. It also depends if you work with people overseas in different time zones and all of those components. But I think the most important part is just either deciding together

what a phone call means. Is an unprompted phone call an emergency escalation or is it just, hey, I wanna shoot the shit? So that is what I think sends a lot of folks into a panic is, no, my boss is calling me unprompted. And the person who's receiving the phone call thinks it's an emergency escalation, thinks there must be something wrong.

Whereas the person who's initiating the phone call is like, no, this is just what I do when I'm driving to the dentist, right? So I'm not sure if the emphasis needs to be on what is an emergency. It's just how to work your way towards something. And one of the things that drives me crazy, whether it's a text or a Slack or an email, is when somebody says, hey, do you have a minute?

because that gives me no context on how to respond. So I think when you're, when you are working up towards an emergency, give context and say, I am calling you because there is an urgent client issue and I really need your help. Or I am emailing you even though you are three levels above me because I have already tried to contact my boss and their boss.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (24:28)

Yes.

Yes. Yeah.

Theresa M. Ward (24:38)

about this specific outage and I am

not getting a response within the last two hours. So that kind of thing can really also trigger the person who's receiving the communication to say, this isn't our usual protocol. And I understand why they are going through a non-typical communication channel. Yeah.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (24:57)

Absolutely. I'm

laughing because whenever people ask me if I if they if I have a minute, I generally respond and say I have about 90 seconds. And then the so go ahead. What do you got? Because then they have to get to the point or whatever it is. But then the other thought that I had is

Also, it's about permission. know, your communication protocol shouldn't just be between you and your boss and your teammate. The communication protocol should also be something that the people above are aware of because it's also permission, right? Like it's permission on, listen, if you're, if it's going to cost the organization more than X number of dollars or

Theresa M. Ward (25:36)

Yeah.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (25:38)

There is blood involved or someone from a hospital or like these are all things that are absolutely you have permission to go all the way up and it empowers people to like, yes, please do that as opposed to well, I was just waiting to get ahold of the boss and I couldn't like there are going to be. So it's also the permission piece that you have permission to do these things or it also is efficiency too, because there's going to be there might be certain things if you need IT.

Theresa M. Ward (25:46)

Hmm.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (26:06)

then you don't call your boss. Or there are certain kinds of support that you need where you should just go straight to that person. And so you've talked about those scenarios and that's where I think the communication protocol is super helpful.

Theresa M. Ward (26:20)

Yeah, I'm also now thinking about, you know, Jim Duthmer's concept of the water line.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (26:26)

Hmm. Well, if pretend I'm not familiar, what's that?

Theresa M. Ward (26:28)

Okay,

so it is, if you think about the way a boat sits in the water, part of the hull is below the waterline and part of it is above the waterline. And so rather than thinking about, is this an emergency quote unquote, like is there blood involved? Kind of like each team, each organization needs to understand, is this a pirate ship, like a cannon got shot?

Brian Nelson-Palmer (26:44)

Right.

Theresa M. Ward (26:55)

and is the hole in the boat above or below the waterline? Because if it's above the waterline, it's not gonna sink the ship. know, you can usually just, people can take care of it themselves. It doesn't require like emergency call to the CEO. So where is the waterline? If it's like, I'm about to piss off our most important client, like that's, if it's in danger of sinking the ship.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (27:11)

Sure.

Theresa M. Ward (27:21)

then that can sometimes be a helpful metaphor. Because I think emergency is just, too much of a loaded word sometimes.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (27:28)

True, urgent and I love, ultimately I hope you're taking away from this all of the different sort of scenarios or ideas for how you describe this when you're talking to the team and you're setting up this tool for your team is there are these different scenarios. So talk about that with the group because your team's dynamic, your team's situation is gonna be different. If you're sales, it's gonna be a difference like.

your chart is going to look different than if you're in customer service or if you're in delivery or if you're in operations or all of those things look different and you all speak the same language. So we're just giving you ideas for the different ways, whether it's dollars or pissing off a client or all of these things are ideas. But I love the waterline as a good sort of metaphor for what, where, where that lies. So good, good.

Theresa M. Ward (27:56)

Thank you.

You know, you could

even do like a mini communication protocol with a client, with an external partner. If you know, for example, I work with a branding agency and they, you know, are building a new website for a client and we got to get it launched in six months. And there's all of these deadlines and things like that. If it's one of those things where, Hey, we need your approval on the homepage wireframes by tonight, or we're going to mess up your launch date. Then.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (28:33)

Yeah.

Theresa M. Ward (28:42)

There can be a, yeah. So this doesn't only have to be for your insular team or for your department or your organization. It can be external as well.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (28:42)

Yes.

True.

Yeah, it could be for the customers too. I like that a lot. Theresa, where is this stored? Is it on a website? Is it in a shared folder? Is it any best practices there?

Theresa M. Ward (29:02)

Mm-hmm. I mean, that that's kind of part of the communication protocol, right? Is also being intentional about where things are stored and where things are shared. So if your company uses Google Drive, if you have access to Google Drive, you got to nominate a champion to make sure that it's organized and that everybody's using the same folder structure and, you know, the shared drives versus the home drives and all of that kind of stuff. usually.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (29:07)

Yeah.

Theresa M. Ward (29:29)

the development of a communications protocol will, it will reveal some of those other gaps. Like, ooh, we got SharePoint set up two and a half years ago, but everyone's just been using file attachments and email and downloading it on their desktop, you know, much to IT's dismay. So I think wherever you have decided that it's going to live,

Brian Nelson-Palmer (29:47)

Sure.

Theresa M. Ward (29:52)

It's good to nominate an accountability champion.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (29:55)

And I want to yes. And what you're saying, Theresa, my yes. And is please, wherever you put it, make sure that it's searchable. And if I go to whatever we're in a Google society these days, if we don't know the answer, we Google it. And inevitably, whether it's SharePoint or whether it's Google Drive or whether it's whatever, they can go in and they can search.

or depending on the size of organization.

Theresa M. Ward (30:14)

Right. Naming conventions. That could be a whole other podcast,

That's true. Yeah. Love it. Good. Yes.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (30:21)

So

what about, what do you do when people don't follow the protocol? Theresa, what happens?

Theresa M. Ward (30:27)

man, yeah, we can solve for the outliers, right? I mean, I think set your expectations at the start, okay? Not 100 % of people are going to adopt it. They're not going to adopt it overnight. My typical thing lately is like, if you can get 80 % of folks doing it, then at least it can become a cultural norm.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (30:32)

Right?

Theresa M. Ward (30:54)

And sometimes that takes a few weeks, sometimes that takes a few months. Patrick Lencioni, right, one of my favorite authors, he talks about how a good leader is a good chief reminding officer. And I just, I say that all the time everywhere. And I'm sure, you you can think of your best leaders are the ones who almost annoyingly repeated themselves until not only did you remember it, but you were empowered to then go spread the,

Brian Nelson-Palmer (31:08)

Yes.

Theresa M. Ward (31:21)

Rallying cry or the this is our new process. You were empowered to go spread it to everybody else So I think it's set your expectations up front and and be empathetic to how people react to change I was just giving a keynote about this last week where like the change cycle what our brains go through when we're told to do something differently is the same as the grief cycle

Brian Nelson-Palmer (31:22)

Yeah, spread the gospel.

Yes.

Theresa M. Ward (31:44)

Like we go through shock and denial and bargaining and anger and blaming. when you lose the status quo, people are losing a sense of comfort and some people navigate that change curve faster than others. So know that as a leader of a team.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (31:47)

It's so

Theresa M. Ward (32:02)

You're gonna have a couple outliers. They're gonna need a little hand holding and you have to sort of tap into like, what's their cookie, right? What's their reward? What is their sense of motivation? Do they want public praise? Like, do they want gifts? Like, what is the thing that's gonna get people on board? Is it a little bit annoying? Do you wish, you know, maybe you didn't have to babysit people through these changes? Sure.

But as long as it's 20 % of your team that just needs like the little sprinkle of something extra, then yeah, you've probably got a good team if 80 % of your folks can just get on board. Eventually, you're just gonna become the weirdo who doesn't track your time or doesn't use Slack correctly, or, you know, still sends emails and that has its own.

I don't think negative reinforcement or shame is a great technique, but people do want to feel like they belong in the culture. eventually, we usually see some late adoption. That's my experience.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (32:57)

as you're talking, two things immediately came to mind. One, remember that praise should be public and anything that's a performance thing should be taken offline or in private. So if someone doesn't follow the protocol and you're going to remind them or point it out, it's best not to do that in front of everybody. So that's one thing to keep in mind. And the other one is

It's the, there's a book and I'll drop the link in the notes for you, but it's called the one minute manager. And the one minute manager is all about when you see something good, say something and be supportive. When you see something that's not right, address it right. Take one minute and address it right then. And so I think that is super important for a protocol situation. If somebody misses it one time or it seems like it's logic. I mean, everybody, we're going to have an understanding, right? It's guide, just like you said, it's a guide.

Theresa M. Ward (33:27)

Hmm.

Okay.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (33:49)

And if people keep, if they keep stepping outside the guide, then you need to point it out. And it's best to do that right at the time when it happens. So do that in private.

Theresa M. Ward (33:58)

Hmm.

things coming up for me. love what you're sharing. think the first is make sure that your final version of your communication protocol has a solid why behind it. Besides, this is just the way I want things. So if I put out a communication protocol, Brian, and you're not following it and I bought, I say, Hey, you're not

you know, we all agreed that it was going to be Slack and you're emailing. I have to be able to answer the question, well, why, why are we not doing email anymore? And it can't be arbitrary. It can't be the two year old, you know, because mommy said so. so that's probably the hardest part of this whole thing is, is making sure that there is a legit why. So don't rush this and don't make it overly.

Don't overemphasize on your personal pet peeves. The other thing that I'll push back on just a little bit is when you were talking about like praise in public, generally, I would say that's a best practice. But the, you ever taken the appreciation languages assessment?

Brian Nelson-Palmer (34:53)

Yes.

Touche, yep, some people don't

like the public appreciation, so that's fair, yep.

Theresa M. Ward (35:12)

I think public praise is the jam, but I've really heard from a couple of my clients as a trend that it seems in some cases performative or cringy. And they prefer like, if my boss's boss writes me a handwritten card and puts it in the mail, that means more to me than being called out in front of a hundred people. Now, who knows why I'm not saying, but.

As a manager, you should tune into those kinds of nuances with your team. So that's, I mean, that's really the hardest part about these protocols is finding that sweet spot between, yes, we all need to get aligned and do generally the same things. And there are always going to be exceptions and empathetic managers will be into those exceptions instead of being realistic or fundamental.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (35:43)

Yes.

I love that you pointed that out because the point of bringing that up was really more about if you're going to criticize, you want to do that, not in public. so I like it. Like, and I mentioned that the praise can be public, but you're right. Everybody's different. And that's also true. And that's part of being a leader is knowing

Theresa M. Ward (36:10)

don't throw up. 100 % agree.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (36:23)

These are the ones that like the public praise. These are the ones that are very shy and would absolutely be just embarrassed as heck if you brought them up, even if it was something good So yes, I love that you mentioned that good point there. Now, what about the?

Theresa M. Ward (36:28)

I would die.

Thank you.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (36:39)

Can I want to take a side note here just as a fun thing as far as communication protocols go? What is a communication habit or behavior for you personally? Theresa that drives you crazy? Because I've I've got one, but I'm just curious what what are like? Is there one that when it happens and you're just like, gosh, come on people, why did I know so I have I have one, but I want to ask you first.

Theresa M. Ward (37:03)

I think mine is probably the Gotham in it. Yeah, what's yours?

Brian Nelson-Palmer (37:06)

Ooh, yeah, yeah, OK.

Mine is, do not email me and ask, can we, when can we meet? That email is such a waste for everybody involved because you're gonna email that. And then I might send you some times back and then you might not be able to do that time. So then you've got to find other ones or even worse is when I, and don't get me wrong, there are professional situations where I don't have any

Theresa M. Ward (37:19)

Yeah.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (37:34)

I get that email and I don't have any alternative but to send sometimes. Like, and I cringe when I do it, but I do it. And then the worst is when they write back and they just say, I can't do any of those times. Can you send them more? that is my, that is my like pet peeve drives me bonkers. my gosh. Like,

There is an app for this people. You can see my calendar. You can see when I'm available. So please just like let's not do back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. Just trying to find a time to meet. So that's just my that's my little one that's just like God when it happens it drives me crazy.

Theresa M. Ward (38:06)

Yeah.

I think I'm the last person in the world to not use like a Calendly or like a public shared calendar because I'm one of those like crazy old David Allen, you know, people that like every hour on my calendar has something booked. And so it doesn't look to the algorithm like I have any free time because I don't I don't use white

Brian Nelson-Palmer (38:27)

Sure.

Theresa M. Ward (38:36)

space on my calendar. Like my days have like chunks already assigned. So I like I can't I don't do the you can see my calendar and I can see your calendar and it's nice when at least one of us you know has that. But if both people don't I totally agree with you at least be like here are the times I can meet if none of those work for you please send times that do. And you got to think about it like

Brian Nelson-Palmer (38:38)

Sure.

Yes.

Theresa M. Ward (39:02)

We are all working towards, you know, the touchdown and like, please do things that move the ball down the field instead of just like this space or like the backwards motion. Yeah, I feel that.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (39:09)

the ball down the field. Yes, please. Yeah. gosh. And

Theresa, I'm totally going to call you out here because I fully support being a David Allen person and having your time blocked and all those time blocks. But here's the hack that you can use to still use Calendly if you do that, which is and if you listening, if you if this is you too, if you're like Theresa, please do this, which is set up a calendar.

Theresa M. Ward (39:27)

Tell me.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (39:35)

for another calendar for your tasks. And when you go into Calendly, you can set up Calendly so it will look at which calendars. And so if you have meetings or I fundamentally believe your calendar should be where you need to be, not what you need to do. So that's my own personal thing. But if you have your to-do items all in one count, so let's say purple is your to-do list calendar or whatever, and this is Theresa's to-do list calendar.

Only put the tasks and those things in that calendar and you can set up Calendly to not look at that calendar. So it will show the times when you are available that you're not already in a meeting and you maybe could move some stuff around, but you can still put stuff on every hour of the day and use both. So just food for thought if you haven't thought about that one. Highly recommend.

Theresa M. Ward (40:24)

No, that's

good. And it's so great to hear that because I'm such a proponent of everybody should be willing to evolve and change, know, change your communication status and change the way, you manage your productivity.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (40:40)

Right,

totally. if you ever reached out to Theresa, I hope she sends you a Calendly link with all of the times that she's available.

Theresa M. Ward (40:47)

Challenge accepted challenge accepted and

So here's the yeah

Brian Nelson-Palmer (40:51)

Let's do it. I love this. Well, last question for you.

Last question for you, Theresa, which is, so what does this mean for you personally?

Theresa M. Ward (41:00)

Gosh, okay, so I don't have kids. I've always been really focused on my career and I feel like I've personally experienced the full gamut of misery to thriving when it comes to our professional space. So when I think about like my

purpose in the world, I want to be able to contribute way more to people's thriving than their misery. you know, a lot of folks out there, even if you do have kids or, you know, you have other personal priorities, we spend so much of our lives at work, most of us, right? You know, 40 hours a week is...

if you're living in a typical, you know, American corporate situation. Sure. And I know there's exceptions to that rule, but it's just, I do believe that work can be a place where our souls can thrive and that we can be our best human selves. And if we can get some of this crap out of the way,

Brian Nelson-Palmer (41:49)

Stereotype. Yeah.

Theresa M. Ward (42:07)

with pet peeve emails like you're saying, inefficient exchanges, just missing each other, not seeing, hey, this is what I meant, this is what I want to offer. I think this communications protocol is just a really practical way to remove some of those barriers from us enjoying one another and enjoying our

Brian Nelson-Palmer (42:27)

love it. You know, well, so here's what I love. I love that you're bringing this desire to be better for everyone to thrive comes with you in this. And I love that you're coming at it from a perspective of let's take the best practices from many different silos and use those, the many different industries that you've touched.

to help level this one up and level this one up in that perspective and everything. And so I love that you created this, the fiery feather is your thing. You can check her out. I'll have the link for you in your episode notes here. I love that you're doing this thing and you found it. And I think what you're talking about and what we're talking about today is things that will make everyone's work lives better, which will make their lives better, which is just a win for everybody. So I love that you're doing this. Thanks for being here and doing this.

Theresa M. Ward (43:17)

I'm so happy that Maura, your previous podcast guest, got a chance to introduce us. And it's been really fun to see how aligned we are on so many things. This is a fun conversation.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (43:28)

Absolutely. And for those people who want to keep in touch with you after this, where should they go?

Theresa M. Ward (43:33)

LinkedIn is the best

place to find me. So Theresa as in Marie Ward. The fieryfeather.com website is another good place. Those are pretty much the spaces where I hang out.

Brian Nelson-Palmer (43:43)

You got it. And I'll have those, those links are in your episode notes right now. So you can go check those places out. And for you tuning in, do you have a friend or colleague who you've had some of these nightmare communication conversations that Theresa and I have been talking about right now? And if you do, would you share the link to this episode specifically with them? Cause I know Theresa and I would love to know that our conversation and our back and forth and the tips and the things that we've shared today would

would help others and a few and please do text them because and I say text because I know it's funny like we just talked about communication protocols, but I'm actually saying text messages because this is about that personal connection and a couple of texts back and forth with you because you heard this episode and it reminded you of that nightmare boss that you had with that person from five years ago that you haven't talked to in a little bit. If that connection and that that back and forth

We'll go a long way toward filling up both of your cups in a way that like posting on social media or just basic stuff wouldn't do. please do send that text message. I know Theresa and I would both appreciate that. And whether this is your first episode that you've ever heard of Productivity Gladiator or if you're one of my regular subscribers, regardless, I love sharing Productivity Gladiator with you because together these productivity skills are going to change your life. That's a wrap.

SUBSCRIBE For UPDATES

I’ll send you three of my favorite time hacks!