11: Communication Tools
“Communication – the human connection – is the key to personal and career success.”
— Paul J. Meyer.
Communication at Magellan
Communication is important to our team. We require ethical, respectful, collaborative conversations. Read below for more information about our tools and channels.
Chat and Meetings
We use Microsoft Teams heavily to communicate at Magellan. It is a valuable tool for conducting our work and building relationships. We use Teams for:
- Online Meetings (Internally and Externally with our Clients) – With a heavy remote workforce, this is our main mode of “meeting” with remote employees.
- Chats: Individual, Group, or All Company
- Teams Phone#
Here is a Teams Support Page with many resources to learn all about Teams.
We use Microsoft Outlook, part of the Microsoft Office 365 suite, to manage our email. We have a standard email signature that we request everyone use. Here is a tutorial to help you set up your Magellan Email Signature. Email Signature Tutorial.
Note: Make sure when you add your own email address that it is linked to send to the correct address.
To do this:
- If your email is hyperlinked, right-click it and select “Edit Link.” Otherwise, click and drag to highlight your email, right-click, and select “Edit Link.”
- In the lightbox that pops up, make sure that the “Web address (URL)” email address that follows “mailto:” matches your email in “Display as.”
- Note: Do not add a space between “mailto:” and your email.
- If you made any edits, click “OK” to save. If they match, you are good to go.
Phone
Teams Phone#: It looks like a typical phone number in your email signature, but the calls conveniently route to your Teams app. You should be assigned a phone# the first week of work, if not before.
- Note: You may occasionally receive a few random spam calls. If this becomes problematic, you can go into your “calls” area of Teams and block the number.
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
George Bernard Shaw
Teams vs. Email
The new Great Debate: Teams or Email?
To streamline communication, follow these guidelines:
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams should be used for quick questions and back-and-forth conversations on day-to-day work issues. Information in Teams is likely to be transparent and foster active collaboration. Since information is easily buried in Teams, there may be a time when you need to move to email to preserve the integrity of the data.
Think of Teams as asking someone a quick question when you pass them in the hallway.
Email should be used for more in-depth, lengthy communications requiring a paper trail. Email is considered more formal and may contain sensitive information. It should be used for non-urgent communication and may contain attachments.
Think of email as the conversation that happens in someone’s office, with or without the door closed.