Tools aren’t neutral. They encode assumptions.
Slack assumes you’re always available. The green dot. The typing indicator. The expectation of rapid response. Use Slack as your primary communication tool and you’ve built an interruption culture, whether you meant to or not.
Email assumes asynchrony. Send and wait. No presence indicators. No expectation of instant response. Different tool, different assumptions, different culture.
Neither is right or wrong. But choose consciously.
Questions to ask before adopting a tool:
- What behavior does this tool reward?
- What does it make easy? What does it make hard?
- Does it assume sync or async?
- Where does information end up? Is it findable later?
- What happens to people who aren’t online when others are?
The tool you choose for daily communication will shape your culture more than any manifesto or handbook.
“We shape our tools and thereafter they shape us.”
— John Culkin, on Marshall McLuhan (1967)
Watch out for:
- Tools that emphasize presence (online/offline indicators)
- Tools that create urgency (read receipts, typing indicators)
- Tools with infinite scroll (conversations that bury important decisions)
- Tools that fragment information (multiple apps for related things)
Your tools are teaching your team how to work, every minute of every day.
Choose teachers carefully.