Digital Communications at Culdesac: A Four-Frame Analysis to Maximize Creativity and Minimize Friction

This document aims to answer the question: how may digital interpersonal communications processes within Slack, the digital workspace used at property-tech startup Culdesac, be made more efficient? To properly do so, one must have a deeper understanding of Culdesac’s values and culture, their positioning among industry competitors, and the manner and cadence by which employees engage with one another digitally to communicate over work outcomes. It analyzes Culdesac’s interpersonal communications on Slack through four frames of thinking from Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal’s Reframing Organizations— human resource, structural, political, and symbolic — to provide frame-based solutions intended to increase creative employee engagement generally and during Slack editing sessions and cut minimize unnecessary setbacks and confusion. These include inviting feedback within the initial Slack, expanded user groupings, increased use of Slack’s huddle feature, a monthly competition for Ramp reimbursement, and positive reinforcement through leadership contributing reactions to complex Slack threads. Exploring the potential plausibility of these recommendations, it provides benefits and drawbacks to implementation while identifying the solutions that are most actionable for Culdesac as of April 2024.