Today I‘m going to share some effective team communication strategies to your in-house photography team. Let’s discuss the causes behind the bad team communication, find a way to reduce your communication cost, and share some useful practices to map out your best in-house photography workflow.

In fact, we use the same communication strategy that shown below to cut our in-house photography cost by 70%.

So, if you have an in-house photography team and looking for simple ways to improve team communication, you will love the following tips and tricks.

Let’s get started.

How does miscommunication occur

There are significant problems connected to communication between photographers. We often observe poor performance due to ineffective communication, which might occur in subsequent segments below:

1. Collecting Photo Requisites
2. Tracking and Monitoring Photoshoot Project

Collecting Photo Requisites

Let’s be clear here, collecting photo requisites is of the most crucial things that can help you to reduce the communication cost of your in-house photography team. And how is that possible? By avoiding conditions that are responsible for ineffective team communication. We introduce the 5 general conditions of ineffective team communication during the photo requisites collection processes.

• Missing Crucial Details
• Misunderstandings of the Requisites
• Sketchy Information
• Pain Points Throughout Photoshooting
• Remodification and Reconfirmation

Missing Crucial Details

The first situation is missing the details. The photographers frequently fail to gather information on photo requisites. Incapability to collect data leads to too many missing crucial information in the shooting.

Misunderstandings of the Requisites

Alongside having a strong photography team communication, it is vital to have correct interaction between your photography team and other departments. The different departments in the company, which interrelate with the photography team, should explain the details of the requisites. Moreover, it is highly controversial if the photographers will fully understand the requisites. In other words, the most important thing is not providing a full understanding of the details, but avoiding misunderstandings in such cases.

Sketchy Information

One of the common conditions that occur during the call sheet photoshoot is having blurred information. In other words, having a preliminary report and missing essential details leads to the imperfection or, sometimes, even to the terrific conclusions.

Pain Points Throughout Photo Shooting

Often, the photography team is unable or slow to react to the new changes. Inefficiency ends with not having a proper and up-to-date photoshoot production checklist, which can harm your overall photography workflow. In conclusion, this delays the project, as the team needs to get information from other departments and units throughout the shooting.

Remodification and Reconfirmation

In addition, due to poor organizational and management skills, sometimes, the requisite is not completed. Therefore, the project requires frequent remodification and reconfirmation.

Tracking and Monitoring Photoshoot Project and Photography Workflow

One of the most common mistakes while tracking and monitoring photoshoot projects is not having proper communication with your in-house photography team. Here are 4 general conditions of ineffective team communication during the photoshoot tracking and monitoring processes. 

• Weak Interaction
• Tardiness
• Poor Organization
• Multitasking Deficiency

Weak Interaction

Not having proper interaction between other teams and the photography team leads to a catastrophe. For instance, to have information on the progress has been taken; the units should be in touch and give information to each other. As seen from experience, sending emails does not function correctly in this case, as it is incredibly time-consuming and exhausting, sending emails over and over again. Therefore, they should look for remote team communication tools to make the interaction easier between them.

Tardiness

Of course, not having remote team communication strategies leads to delays in the project. In such cases, to track all the steps is crucial to avoid delays, which seems impossible without the help of remote team communication.

Poor Organization

Inefficient team communication shows itself during the organization of the whole project. If there are any urgent cases, team members are not able to handle it. Poor management skills indeed head towards complexities across the entire photography prep sheet schedule.

Multitasking Deficiency

The work environment is stressful. Doing a job is one thing, but controlling it is another story. Over here, for example, if two photoshootings projects are running simultaneously, it is highly complex to track the progress of these two projects separately. It appears like a multitasking deficiency of the team members.

Effects of ineffective Team communication

• Hard to follow the needs/ Miss the Requirements
• Long process & Time consuming
• Project delay/ Miss the deadline
• Human Resource can’t be allocated efficiently
• Reduce Overall Productivity
• Frustration and Stress

Hard to Follow the needs / Miss the Requirements

There are varieties of effects that can happen due to the ineffective communication by your in-house photography team and hard to follow the needs / missing the requirements is among them. Once it became harder for your team to follow the essentials, it will lead to more problems discussed in the next paragraphs.

Long process & Time consuming

Long process and time-consuming tasks are another major drawback of ineffective team communication. Imagine spending extra hours on doing reshoots which your team can spend on other essential tasks, just because your in-house photography team couldn’t follow the proper needs or miss the requirements due to ineffective communication.

Project Delay / Miss the deadline

Project delays can leave a negative impact in the eyes of your client. The difficulties that come after missing the deadline of a project can be costly for your organization, and without having good communication, delays are bound to happen.

Human Resource can’t be allocated efficiently

Human resource plays an essential part of any organization. Efficient management will understand the importance of team communication and how to utilize the abilities of those under its command.

Reduce Overall Productivity

There’s nothing more worrying about an organization than its employees’ productivity. If your team has a communication gap, their productivity will decrease and your organization’s growth. To get more quality work done, you need to create an effective communication system between your in-house photography team.

Frustration & Stress

Hard to follow needs, reduced productivity, missing deadlines, what do think all these things will lead to? Frustration and stress, the sooner your team realizes the better.

Make sure to invest your time and money in making a good communication process or method in place that your in-house photography team can follow.

Cause of communication problems in organizations

All the organizational problems that occur on a day-to-day basis can be traced back to miscommunications, ineffective communications, or misinterpretations. It is important to know for an organization the common causes of communication problems and how they can resolve them. Here are 7 causes of communication problems in organizations.

• Not Having A Pre-Designed Call Sheet Photoshoot
• Not Having A Pre-Designed Template for Requisites
• Insufficient Evaluation of Team Capacity
• Common Language Problem
• Inefficient Management of the Photography Workflow
• Not Having Efficient Team Communication Software
• Inadequate Control Over Team Communication Activities

Not Having A Pre-Designed Call Sheet Photoshoot

One of the reasons for inefficient communication between teams is not having stability in the shooting schedule. There is no pre-designed photography call sheet, and the checklist does not contain all the required information.

Not Having A Pre-Designed Template for Requisites

Besides having incomplete information, not having a team communication app makes it complicated to design a photography requirement template.

Insufficient Evaluation of Team Capacity

The members of the crew are not aware of each other’s capacity. Therefore, the team needs an adequate evaluation of team capacity. Here, you should find answers to “How can you use collaboration tools to improve team communication?”

Common Language Problem

Of course, the base is a communication problem. However, not having a common language or common terminology among the members result in complete chaos. Improving team communication tools will lead to the complete removal of misunderstandings.

Inefficient Management of the Photography Workflow

Apart from having trouble preparing schedules and templates, the members frequently cannot manage and guide the image requisites. Hence, to discuss how collaboration tools can improve team communication is on point again.

Not Having Efficient Team Communication Software

Deficiency in team communication software, more clearly in team communication tools and virtual team communication tools, is one of the main reasons to end with a catastrophe. Therefore, it is essential to find the answer to how to communicate with remote teams effectively.

Inadequate Control Over Team Communication Activities

The second reason shows itself in tracking and monitoring of the teamwork. All these negative results and dire circumstances appear during the shooting process because they do not have tools and systems to control and track the team communication and photography workflow activities.

How to improve Team communication at work

Now that you are aware of what can happen due to poor organizational communication, we’ve created some of the most overlooked communications practices to improve communication at work. Here are 6 ways to improve communication at work.

• Requirements Gathering Checklist
• Photo Shot List
• Photography Portfolio
• Call Sheet Photoshoot
• Making Use of Google
• Team Communication Tools

Requirements Gathering Checklist

Requirements gathering checklist is the answer to solve all these team communication problems mentioned above. Preparing your list beforehand will be efficient and helpful in creating effective team communication. Therefore, we represent the key points you should have in your checklist and confirm it in the initial stakeholder meeting. Here are the key points you need in your requirements gathering checklist:

• Information about the product
• The time frame of the project – due date
• Number of shots
• Requirements for photography editing
• Type of Photography (streamline photography, colorful background photography, etc.)
• Example photography
• Camera Movement and Angles

Photo Shot List

A photo shot list will be your template to collect all data you have. Many teams prefer photography shot list to collect all the essential details about every shooting in the film and photography industry. Therefore, the shot list template helps your team to communicate as it creates clarity of vision. You may create your own photo shot list template taking the information we provided above. You may add all the critical points in a row and the shots in the columns.

Photography Portfolio

One of the effective team communication tools is creating a photography portfolio. Having a portfolio online will help you communicate easily with other departments and smoothly update the details bout photography requirements and progress. A photography portfolio will assist you in guiding and integrating the in-house photography team with other departments.

Call Sheet Photoshoot

Often it stays as a problem to track and control the progress of the photoshooting. However, utilizing a call sheet photography will help a lot to decrease misunderstandings and in capabilities. Creating a call sheet photography is relatively easy. You only need to add the bullet points into your template. For instance, a better call sheet includes the points below:

• Dates and Dues
• Brief Description of the Project Idea
• Spots of Shooting
• Models Information
• Teams Information (product, design, camera, etc.)
• Timetable
• Operational Instructions and Notes

Making Use of Google

Google offers a lot of new applications and programs to make business life more manageable. Therefore, making use of Google in photography makes a tremendous impact on increasing team communication efficiency and enhances photography workflow. For instance, Google Calendar will be a useful tea communication tool for your in-house photography team. With the help of Google Calendar, you may set a timetable of the crucial meetings, receive reminders, and be ahead of everything. It is easy to create various calendars and sharing them with your team members. In short, we believe Google Calendar is an effective remote team communication tool for your photography team.

Team Communication Tools

One of the easiest ways to track your team’s progress and increase communication efficiency among them is by using team communication and project management tools. We introduce the most effective project management tools below:

• ShootQ
• Pixifi
• Studio Ninja
• Dubsado
• Sprout Studio

Summary

In conclusion, what you have learned from the article are the main reasons for ineffective team communication, which often leads to poor photography workflow. However, there are various team communication strategies to enhance team communication efficiency. Moreover, getting the help of technology – team communication and management software and organizational skills- makes it easier to achieve efficiency in your in-house photography team.