How to Set Your Communication Policy

Your organization's Communication policy says who can contact whom. It's an ordered list of rules: the first rule that matches two people decides what they may do. Anything no rule matches falls to the default at the bottom of the list.

A rule on chat applies to everyone. A rule on any other channel applies to SI members only: what people say in their own email, calls and meetings isn't restricted by the policy. That lets you, for example, keep your SI members within their own department while your people keep working as they always have.

Before you start

Your organization needs Chat, and you need the Manage Chat Settings right. Go to Settings → Chat → Communication policy.

The tab has six views: Rules, Matrix, Simulator, Activity, Templates and Requests. Nothing you change takes effect until you publish it (see "Publish your changes" below).

Switch the policy on

At the top of the tab:

• Policy on / Policy off switches the whole policy. While it's off, nothing is applied and nothing is recorded: every conversation is allowed, though you can still write rules and try them in the Simulator.
• When no rule matches says whether two people no rule covers may chat. It governs chat only. On the other channels, contact no rule covers is allowed.
• Always allow a member and their manager keeps everyone able to reach their own manager, ahead of every rule. It also keeps every SI member able to reach its supervisor. Turn it off only deliberately.

Write a rule

1. In Rules, click Add a rule.
2. A rule reads as a sentence, for example "Sales may not chat with Support". Click each part of the sentence to change it:
   • Who this rule is about and Who they may reach: departments, job titles, teams, roles, specific people, someone's reports, employees or not, work location, or SI members or people. Nothing chosen means everyone.
   • what they may do: may chat with, may not chat with, may start chats with (only this side can open a conversation; you choose how the other side may reply), or must request approval to chat with.
   • Only when the two people are…: optional conditions, such as in a different department, on the same team, or working on the same lead, account or task.
3. Click the tune button at the end of the sentence for the rest of the rule:
   • Channels: Chat, Email, Calls, Meetings, Task assignments and Shares. A new rule covers chat only. Any channel other than chat applies to SI members only, and the panel says so.
   • Only when starting contact: the rule applies only to whoever starts the contact. Answering someone who wrote first is never stopped.
   • Who approves for SI members, on a rule that needs approval: Their supervisor (the default), Their manager, Their department head, or A specific person, chosen among the people who hold Approve AI Actions. People ask their manager.
   • Supervised: see "Supervised conversations" below.
   • Enforce (off = audit only): see "Audit first, then enforce" below.
   • Attachments, a schedule, start and end dates, and the message people see when the rule stops them.

Order matters: drag a rule up to make it decide first. A rule that can never apply, because a rule above it already covers everything it matches, is flagged on its card.

Rules that need approval

On a rule that says must request approval to chat with, starting contact needs an approval first:

• A person asks their manager (or, with no manager, the head of their department), from the member card or the chat window. See How to Ask to Chat with Someone.
• An SI member asks through its approvals, and the approver the rule names decides. See How to Approve or Reject an AI Action.

Once approved, the two can be in contact on that channel for 30 days. Every person's request is listed in the Requests view: who asked, who they wanted to contact, the approver, the purpose, the status and when they asked.

Start from a template

The Templates view has shapes to start from. Under For SI members are four that cover contact between departments, on every channel, for SI members only:

• SI members: open across departments: an SI member may start contact with anyone in another department.
• SI members: need to know: an SI member may start contact with someone in another department when both of them work on what it's about, such as the same lead, account or task. Otherwise its supervisor approves first.
• SI members: manager approves: before an SI member starts contact with someone in another department, its manager approves.
• SI members: own department only: an SI member may not start contact with anyone outside its own department. People in other departments can still reach it, and it may answer them.

Each applies only to the one starting contact, so an SI member can always answer someone who wrote first. Pick one and click Add to the board. Its rules go above the default and below your existing rules, and they arrive in audit mode.

An audit rule records only while the policy is on. If the policy is off, the dialog offers Switch the policy on so these audit rules can record, already turned on. Leave it on unless you only want to look at the rules first.

Audit first, then enforce

A rule in audit mode blocks nothing. It records what it would have done, so you can see the effect before anybody is stopped. The Activity view shows what the policy blocked, and under Would have been blocked (audit rules) what your audit rules would have blocked, each with its channel.

When you're happy with what a rule would do, open its tune panel, turn on Enforce (off = audit only), and publish. Nothing moves from audit to enforcement on its own.

Check a rule with the Simulator

The Simulator answers what happens between two specific people, and which rule decided it. Pick Person A and Person B, then a Channel. On chat and email you can also turn on This is a reply, to check that an answer gets through. A conversation that needs an approval reads Approval needed, and the Simulator names who decides. It always answers from the published policy, not your unsaved changes.

The Matrix shows chat between departments or job titles at a glance. It can't draw a rule on other channels, or one that applies only when starting contact, so it counts those under the grid. They're still in force; edit them in Rules.

Supervised conversations

Turn on Supervised on a rule to let a manager read the conversations it allows. The reader is the manager of the person the rule is about, or, when the rule is about an SI member, its supervisor. They can read, but not write.

Everyone in a supervised conversation sees a notice: "Your organization's communication policy makes this conversation visible to a manager." A manager finds the conversations they can read on the Supervised conversations page, at /supervised-chats in your workspace. Access follows the reporting line: if the person moves to a different manager, the old manager can no longer read.

Supervision applies to chat only.

Publish your changes

Your changes are a draft until you publish them. Click Review and publish to see what the change would do (how many pairs of people could no longer chat, or now could), add a note about what changed and why, and click Publish.

Conversations that are no longer allowed stay visible and become read-only, with the reason shown. Nothing is deleted. Every published version is kept, and you can restore an earlier one from the version history.

SI members and their charter

The communication policy decides whom an SI member may contact. Its charter decides which actions it must ask about first. Team chat needs no approval from the charter, whatever the SI member's autonomy, unless a charter's approvals name Message colleagues in team chat. See The AI Charter Explained.