Ping: The Secrets of Successful Virtual Communication

Discover the ultimate guide on when (and how) to use virtual communication tools, from video to instant messaging and everything in between, written by management professor at The University of Texas at Austin and leading expert on virtual communication Andrew Brodsky.

Andrew Brodsky is here to tell you that, yes, that meeting could have been an email.

And that email? Maybe it should have been a voice memo (really!).

And your camera—it’s okay to turn it off, sometimes even better.

Many of us give far too little thought to how we communicate virtually at work—just going with the flow when we see another Zoom meeting has been added to our calendar or accepting the late night email chains as normal. And this has consequences: from employee burnout due to back-to-back-to-back video calls, to lack of connection with our colleagues or customers, to potential for embarrassment or misunderstandings with the wrong message forwarded or a tweet gone viral.

Despite our increasing reliance on communication technology for our work, until now, there has been no guide for navigating it. Which brings us to Ping. In this accessible book for workers of all stripes—remote, hybrid, and those who work fully in person, yet use communication technologies as part of their jobs—Brodsky dives into the big questions we all have: Which communication modes are the best for which situations? How can we interact most productively and authentically? How do we build relationships at a distance? How can we increase workplace inclusion using these technologies? And finally, how can we best deal with conflict via virtual communication?

Split into three parts, each section of Ping tackles core components of how to better navigate communication challenges and technology in contemporary workplaces. Every chapter highlights an important challenge faced when using communication technologies, like how to start new relationships or how to negotiate virtually.

With entertaining stories, interviews from top business leaders, and Brodsky’s cutting-edge social science research on remote communication tools, Ping is an indispensable guide for today’s modern workplace.