Slack is great for speed, terrible for nuance. The trick is knowing when to stay async and when to move to voice, then closing the loop in writing. Use this as a checklist.
Stay in Slack when
- The outcome is a small, reversible decision.
- You’re sharing status, a link, or a short doc.
- The question has a single owner and a clear deadline.
- There’s low emotional weight and low ambiguity.
Jump to a call when
- There’s tension, disagreement, or potential conflict.
- Multiple stakeholders need to align on trade-offs.
- The problem is ambiguous and needs exploration.
- Back-and-forth has hit 3+ replies without convergence.
How to call the switch
- Pattern:
We’re looping; propose 15-min huddle at ___ with ___ to decide ___ - Example:
We’re looping; propose 15-min huddle at 2:30 with @Sam @Alex to decide rollback vs hotfix.
After the call, return to Slack with BLUF
Post a BLUF summary so nobody needs the recording:
- Decision: What you chose and why (one line).
- Risks/Mitigations: Top 1–2 risks, how you’ll watch them.
- Owners/Next steps: Who does what by when.
Example:
Decision: Rollback 1.14 now; hotfix after QA tonight.
Risks: Users on EU edge see 30s errors; mitigate by keeping 1.13 pods warm.
Owners: @Jamie rollback now; @Ish QA hotfix by 8 PM; @Mara comms in #status.
Guardrails for respectful switches
- Ask, don’t demand: “Okay if we hop on for 10 min?” with a time.
- Offer context first: 2–3 lines so the call starts informed.
- If someone can’t join, give them an async path to weigh in.
Medium choice is a skill. Keep Slack for clarity and logs; use calls for alignment and trust. Then capture the outcome back in Slack so no one’s left guessing.