"The underlying concept of our modern, very fast communication tools is to lower the transactional cost per bit of communication.”
Christoph Magnussen calls himself “the New Work guy” - he helps people use New Work tools to improve collaboration and communication, making their work lives more “user-friendly” in the process.
Of course, the concept of New Work has been around for a while - and Christoph actually sat down to talk to Frithjof Bergmann, its originator. “We agreed on one very simple thing: we have technology that can help us to organise work in a different way,” he says in this podcast.
This is where the idea of effective communication is so important. It has the power to transform our work lives - and we should absolutely use those tools in our private lives too, he says. Speaking from my own experience, I know that anyone who’s been on their school’s PTA or even a kids-birthday-whatsapp-group will know why "lowering the transactional cost per bit of communication" is so important outside of work too 🙈
One of his tips is to use different channels depending on what you’re communicating. Keep kids-logistics-questions and love-language with your partner as separate conversations, even online. This could help divide the mental load of childcare and home-logistics more fairly between partners too, because that communications channel remains strictly practical.
At work, he recommends asymmetrical communication, as he puts it. That means fewer hours that everyone spends together in zoom meetings - and more short and to-the-point messages, short videos or presentations that only take one person’s time to prepare, and that everyone else can then digest and act on relatively quickly.
The overarching aim is always to use New Work tools to live and work better. Parents have always been trailblazers when it comes to flexible work, mostly out of necessity. So I love the idea of taking some of those work tools back our home lives too ❤️
For more on how you can communicate better at home and at work (and possibly avoid getting divorced!) listen to our full conversation here:
Youtube: https://youtu.be/FEKs-9oh9Xg
… and let me know whether it has inspired you to make any changes to your workflow or to how you communicate with your partner. I’d love to know your thoughts !
Speaker: @Christoph Magnussen - CEO & founder @BLACKBOAT - the New Work Group · Author · Speaker · Youtuber · Podcaster · Dad
Interviewer: Dr. Ricarda Engelmeier - Founder @MyCollective
Photo: Christoph Magnussen