GIFs, Glorious GIFs

Feeling a little whimsical on a Monday afternoon, I got to thinking about .gifs and how they are used in a #remoteworking environment to create connections, levity, and a sense of #culture (regardless of how you feel about the "correct" pronunciation 😜)

I felt silly when I started working remotely full-time in 2019, and had to intentionally learn how to send .gif files via email and  #projectmanagementsystems so they actually moved when teammates viewed them 👵

The #marketer &  #brandambassador in me understands & agrees with some brands' choices to skip the animated additions, or limit them to internal-only documentation & communications. There's certainly an opportunity to "read the room" by industry and context here.

However, I can also make a case for the resonant #positivevibesonly culture that may be felt with their balanced use:

• They're visually engaging to spice up communications for different learning/communication styles and help ensure important subtext is captured

  
  

• They offer a way to capture authenticity and individual personalities, laying a foundation for more personal connections

  
  

• They also convey creativity, and professional grounded-ness through a perspective of not taking oneself/matters too seriously

When it comes to #timemanagement, using .gifs may strike as counterintuitive to leadership. While it seems like a potential time-suck, my experience with #remoteculture has been that teams who used .gifs in daily communications were more #efficient, better at identifying importance & #prioritization of tasks, and had stronger #workethic

Additionally, I thought .gif-friendly teams demonstrated more #empathy & #respect, compared to working alongside teams that didn't use them. For what it's worth, I think these characteristics are more effectively parsed out in the hiring process, rather than at an operational level.

I have seen teams use time tracking so stringently to identify the right budgeting bucket for every passing moment. The result left communications cold & profit-centric on the client front, and spared little operational breathing room for creative communication among angsty 😵‍💫 teammates. In that setting, connections between colleagues required more structured time to build the rapport required for successful #crossteamcollaboration. It was difficult to prioritize internal connections consistently across the org. in a client services context as it competed for #projectmanagement & productivity time, while damaging the potential for more consistent cross-team connections.

🎈 One of my favorite examples of great .gif use is one former team's habit of creating an email .gif thread for someone's birthday. Having been a contributor & recipient, it's a quick and thoughtful way to let teammates have fun together and feel seen without putting them on the spot. This simple tradition in team communication helps create a baked-in sense of comradery to weather the challenges of client services.