Slack Opener Causing Anxiety - Reframing Communication


Your Slack Opener is Creating Anxiety

I used to train my team to fear my Slack messages, and I realized it too late.

My go-to opener was always: "Hey, we have a problem..."

This created instant anxiety. People went into defense mode before they even knew the context. I was framing their help as a burden, not a opportunity.

The simple fix is to change the opener:
"Quick thought on X, can I get your eyes on it?"

Same request, completely different energy. It becomes collaboration, not a crisis.



This article was originally published on https://craftengineer.com/. It was written by a human and polished using grammar tools for clarity.
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