As a COO in many environments, I’ve noticed a common pattern: people get easily absorbed in deep work and forget to align and communicate properly with other teammates. This is a trap that many early-stage startups fall into, and it’s up to the founders to develop a high level of self-awareness and avoid it.
Why Does This Happen?
First of all, it’s natural. There is nothing to blame. The vast majority of startups operate with limited resources. They have a small founding team and maybe a few contractors, but when the budget is tight, it’s hard to afford full-time roles for everyone. So, people tend to prioritize execution over communication, syncing, and taking a step back to get an overview of the entire organization.
In early-stage startups, people often work part-time or asynchronously. They might only be able to dedicate a few hours per day, which makes it even harder to establish effective communication systems. Even when team members are full-time, it can still be a struggle.
Why? Because, by definition, a startup is a business at the beginning stages, looking for rapid growth. Founders define the vision, split the tasks, and then everyone gets to work as hard as possible to finish their part. Sometimes, there’s so much work to do that people forget to share their accomplishments, and bottlenecks, or take a break when they finish a task.
The desire to develop and grow the business can be so overwhelming that people forget to celebrate small wins and share them with teammates. The focus is often on “productive work” rather than taking a moment to pause, celebrate, and communicate the progress made.
I don’t think this is healthy behavior for a startup. While it may seem productive in the short run, it can cause problems in the long run.
The Importance of Communication Between Departments
One of the most important things to understand is that every department in a startup depends on the others. To generate sales, you need a great product. To do marketing, you need a steady solution that can be promoted to the world. To develop a solution, you need input from sales, product, and marketing teams to collect feedback and turn that into features for the development roadmap. Every department relies on the others to perform.
In such an interconnected environment, communication becomes critical. It’s not just about offering context to your teammates, but also sharing updates and small wins. This fosters a sense of progress, which helps release dopamine and makes everyone feel in control of their work.
How Can We Improve Communication in Our Teams?
Here are a few solutions that have worked for me:
1. Assign a Team Member to Oversee Communication
Assigning a dedicated team member to step back from the daily grind and take a broader view of what’s happening can be highly beneficial. This person would be responsible for collecting feedback and keeping everyone updated on the progress.
Small wins, setbacks, delays, and accomplishments should all be shared across the team. The best person for this role is often the COO, as they can act as the glue between all departments.
Why not the CEO? While the CEO can take on this role, their energy is often better spent on areas that have a larger impact, like innovation, sales, or investment.
2. Create a Centralized Communication Channel
Implementing an automated system where everyone reports their progress can be a game-changer. Every day, ask team members automatically to post updates on their progress, ensuring that everyone stays informed. With a small team effort and a bit of discipline, this can become a regular habit.
3. Friday Progress Check-ins
Assign a team member to ask everyone about their progress every Friday afternoon. Collect the feedback and organize it into a single message to be shared on a general channel. This helps the team stay aligned and aware of each other’s work.
I used to implement this with teams of 20-30 people. Besides progress updates, I would include how this progress would influence the next week’s tasks. For example:
“Now that John did X, Mark will do Y, and we expect to increase W metric by 5%.”
This not only keeps everyone informed but also shows what’s working and what needs improvement.
The results of this approach were consistently positive. People started expecting these updates on Fridays, receiving recognition for their hard work, and closing the week with a sense of accomplishment and good energy.
By fostering a culture of clear and consistent communication, you can avoid the common pitfalls of early-stage startups and ensure that everyone stays on the same page. In the end, a startup’s success relies as much on great teamwork and communication as it does on great ideas.