Communication

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Our communication philosophy

Good communication is clear, intentional, and respects others’ time and focus. At Blevins Holdings, we default to async-first wherever possible, use the right tool for the right purpose, and write things down so knowledge isn’t trapped in conversations. Key principles:

• Async-first — Not everything requires a meeting or an immediate response. Default to async for status updates, questions, and non-urgent discussions.
• Write things down — If a decision is made in a meeting or call, document it somewhere others can find it.
• Right tool, right purpose — Use Slack for quick questions and team chatter; email for formal or external communication; meetings for discussions that genuinely require real-time back-and-forth.
• Respect focus time — Before pinging someone, ask whether this could be async. Unexpected interruptions are costly.

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Slack

Slack is our primary internal communication tool for real-time and async messaging.

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Response expectations

You are not expected to respond outside your working hours. Use Slack’s Do Not Disturb settings to protect your personal time.

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Channel norms

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Formatting tips

• Use bold for key terms or action items
• Use bullet points for lists
• Use code blocks for technical content
• For long messages, consider writing a doc and sharing the link instead

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Email

Email is for formal communication, external parties, and anything that needs a clear paper trail.

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Response expectations

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Email norms

• Clear subject lines — State what the email is about and any action needed: “Action needed: Review contract by Friday” is better than “Contract”
• One topic per email — Makes it easier to search and act on
• CC sparingly — Only include people who need to know or act; don’t CC just to cover yourself
• Reply-all carefully — Before hitting reply-all, ask: does everyone on this thread need your response?
• Avoid email for urgent issues — If something is time-sensitive, call or Slack first

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Meetings

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When to have a meeting

Meetings are valuable for:

• Decisions that require discussion and back-and-forth
• Relationship-building and team bonding
• Complex topics where real-time Q&A helps
• Situations requiring emotional sensitivity

Meetings are not valuable for:

• Status updates that could be a Slack message
• One-way information sharing (send a doc instead)
• Topics that aren’t ready for discussion yet

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Meeting standards

Every meeting should have:

1. A clear purpose — What decision will be made, or what will be discussed?
2. An agenda — Shared with attendees before the meeting, ideally 24 hours in advance
3. The right people — Not too many (5–6 max for decision-making meetings), not people who don’t need to be there
4. A defined end time — End on time or early; don’t go over without explicit agreement
5. Notes and action items — Documented and shared after the meeting

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Recurring meeting cadence

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Video call norms

• Camera on when practical — it builds connection and keeps everyone engaged
• Mute when not speaking in larger meetings
• Use the raise hand or chat feature to queue up a point without interrupting
• If you’ll be late, send a Slack message to the meeting organizer

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Async communication

We lean async by default. Here’s how to make async work well:

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Writing good async updates

• Be complete — Include enough context that the reader can understand and act without needing to ask follow-up questions
• Be clear about what you need — “FYI” vs. “Please review by Thursday” vs. “No action needed, archiving this”
• State deadlines explicitly — “When you have time” means never; “by end of week” means Friday at close of business
• Use structured formats — For longer updates, use headers, bullets, and a summary at the top

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When async breaks down

Async doesn’t work when:

• A topic requires rapid back-and-forth between multiple people
• There’s genuine ambiguity that’s hard to resolve in writing
• The situation is emotionally sensitive
• A decision has been stuck in a document thread for more than 2 days

In these cases, set up a short sync call — 30 minutes of talking often resolves what days of Slack threads cannot.

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Communicating in different situations

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Sharing bad news or problems

Share problems early — don’t wait until you have a solution. Your manager and team can’t help with problems they don’t know about. A heads-up like “FYI, we may miss the deadline for X, here’s why, and here are my options” is much better than a surprise on the due date.

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Disagreement and debate

Healthy disagreement is part of good decision-making. When you disagree:

1. Say so directly, with your reasoning: “I see this differently because…”
2. Ask questions to understand the other view: “Can you help me understand why you’re going that direction?”
3. Separate the person from the idea — critique the approach, not the person
4. Once a decision is made, commit to it — disagree and commit if needed

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Escalation

If something isn’t getting resolved at the level it should be, escalate. This isn’t a failure — it’s how organizations work. Escalate to your manager with context: what the issue is, what you’ve tried, and what you need from them.

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Communication and the law

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Last updated: [Date] — owned by HR / Operations