Subject: Input for the communication workstream - a proposed WhatsApp structure


Dear Gents,

Communication came out as one of the most-named points in our SWOT, and the
workstream for it has not started yet. Before it does, I went through the numbers
on how we actually use WhatsApp today, because I think they change where we would
start.

Across our three operational groups this year: 27,622 messages, 103 a day, one
every eleven minutes during daylight.

Two things stood out more than I expected.

The traffic did not grow with the workload. The terminal has been busy since
March, when Hormuz closed - and from March to June the message volume sat flat.
The jump came in July, when the Operational Excellence programme started. Nobody
has been asked to report more. The same people simply began posting 70% more
each, on their own.

Most of the volume is not new information:

  - 35% of messages only continue what the same person sent moments earlier.
    Those 27,622 messages carry roughly 18,022 actual pieces of information.

  - Two in five photos arrive with no text at all, so they have to be opened
    before you know whether they concern you.

  - 22% arrives between 22:00 and 06:00, while we still assume everyone is
    following along.

So the proposal is not to communicate less. It is to give every subject one
place, so people know where to look and where they are covered:

  Announcements   Decisions and planning. Admins post, nobody replies.
  NOW             Someone has to stop what they are doing.
  Handover        One templated message per shift.
  HSSE            Safety only.
  Progress        Routine updates. Muted, not required reading.

With three rules: no photo without one line of text; no "noted / ok / thanks"
(use the reaction); one subject, one channel.

It costs nothing. WhatsApp Communities is free, the existing groups keep their
history and their members, and setting it up takes about fifteen minutes. No new
app and no training.

What it does need is one sentence from management: if you post it in the agreed
channel in the agreed format, you are covered. Without that, people will keep
posting everywhere to be safe, and any structure fills up again within a month.

Figures and an example of how it looks on the phone are attached. Happy to walk
through it in fifteen minutes, or to hand it to whoever picks up the
communication workstream.

Kind regards,
Leon