From the course: Skills to Build Stronger Work Relationships

Start using remojis, learn each other’s language

From the course: Skills to Build Stronger Work Relationships

Start my 1-month free trial

Start using remojis, learn each other’s language

“

- Have you ever sent a message to a colleague that they completely misunderstood? A classic example is sending a message that's supposed to be sarcastic, but the receiver assumes you're being serious. This has definitely happened to me more than a few times. More than ever, a huge amount of our communications at work are happening through text. In cases where we used to speak directly to our colleagues, we now send emails or messages on Slack. The problem is a lot of information, especially emotional information, is lost when we can't see facial expressions or hear tone. To help with this problem, I want to share a tool I call remojis, which is a mashup of the words remote and emojis. Remojis are emojis that you and your colleagues assign to certain emotional communications. For example, the turtle emoji might mean, "I need more time to work on this." The upside-down smiley face emoji might mean, "This message was said with sarcasm." Maybe the brain emoji means, "Let's think before we take action." Or the heart with a bandage on it might mean, "I'm feeling sensitive today." My co-founder and I recently implemented a new remoji because we noticed that when we go to each other with a problem, it isn't always clear if we just want help solving that problem or if we're upset about the problem. So we decided that when we message each other about an issue, we'll include the chili pepper emoji if we're upset. What's great about remojis is that you and your team can decide what kind of information you want to communicate easily. As you see miscommunications happening, add a remoji for it. You can keep track of these in a document or channel so that everyone can see what's been added. To practice this, think of one text miscommunication that's happened on your team recently. What information was lost? What remoji could have been created that might have prevented the problem? You'll be surprised by how many communication issues are prevented by developing a remoji library with your team.

Contents