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Reducing Noise, Increasing Focus: The Power of Unified Workflows

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Power of Unified Workflows

Today’s workplace has more noise than what’s on daytime TV. Chat app notifications, email threads that just don’t end, multiple overlapping apps, and updates sent twice all scream for our attention. All of that noise gets in the way of productivity, creating fragmented workspaces, slowing execution, causing unnecessary repetition of work, making teams seek clarification, and getting updates from other apps. Unified project management tools offer teams another path forward. They consolidate communication, documentation, and decision-making into one unified flow, reducing interruptions. Lark is a strong example of how connected features can help organizations transform their workplace from noise to clarity.

Lark Wiki: Turning scattered knowledge into a single source

Information leaks across drives, emails, and folders can also inconvenience employees, who spend more time searching for documents than actually working. Unfortunately, when employees are searching for answers, they are also creating more noise, making it even harder to focus. Lark Wiki was created to solve this problem by serving as a centralized knowledge base where information can live on indefinitely and can be found simply and efficiently. When people have knowledge-sharing behaviors, the noise becomes clear.

  • Centralized documentation: Policies, guidelines, and best practices are all stored and structured in one location. This saves employees time by not having to scroll through shared drives, emails or random screenshots for the information they need.
  • Self-service: Employees are directed to find an answer on the Wiki themselves, rather than asking their colleagues for the answer, which creates independence and eliminates if repeated options.
  • Version stability: Whenever a change occurs, the document is updated one time, but now everyone receives the update simultaneously. This also eliminates the confusion of colleagues passing outdated files to each other while only supporting old procedures.
  • Cross-department sharing: HR teams can publish onboarding guides while the compliance team can store regulatory procedures, so everyone is utilizing the same playbook.

Lark Base: Structuring data for focused execution

Lark Base

Often times, teams replicate trackers across multiple spreadsheets and tools, which creates confusion and noise. Lark Base addresses this by providing one system with a clear structure of projects and defined ownership. Projects can be customized to the needs of the department while maintaining connectivity across teams.

  • Custom project views: Kanban, table, gallery, and timeline views allow teams to prioritize and keep organized while eliminating clutter.
  • Defined ownership: Each record or task has an owner, eliminating the noise of who’s responsible, and speeding accountability.
  • Live visibility: Managers have live visibility of progress without unnecessary requests for updates, limiting distractions in communication.
  • Commercial capabilities: With multiple features in Base, users can easily build up a client information hub as a CRM app, attaching client records to tasks and deliverables. Here, sales and the service teams focus on completing their work instead of reconciling multiple tools.

Lark Sheets: Making data collaboration clean and consistent

Lark Sheets

When several versions of spreadsheet values are shared throughout inboxes, the outcome is repeated effort and misalignment in decision-making. This increases noise in people’s workflows, wasting time reconciling files. Lark Sheets eases the management of data through simultaneous collaboration in a single live document.  This reduces distraction and enables your contributions to be focused on insights rather than additional cleaning of files.

  • Single live file: Teams collaborate in a Lark Sheet versus managing duplicate versions of the data, sidestepping confusion when double attachments are added
  • Real-time analysis: Formulas and charts of data change instantaneously, and evaluation of decision-making is based on “real” numbers, not previous reports and antiquated data.
  • Connected Context: Sheets connected by Base or Docs, and ensures that all analysis provides incorporated elements directly to projects, without additional steps.
  • Cross-functional leverage: Finance can use Lark Sheets for budgets, operations can manage tracking of resources, and all on the same platform, halting repeated notice reporting.

Lark Approval: Reducing delays with automation

Lark Approval

Decision-making often gets stuck in cluttered email threads where approvals are lost or delayed. This slows progress and adds unnecessary noise as employees chase updates. Lark Approval solves this by creating a structured space for approvals, where requests are routed automatically and status is always visible. By embedding automation, it reduces friction and keeps projects flowing.

  • Structured request system: Expense claims, leave requests, or project sign-offs happen in one place, avoiding the noise of scattered email threads.
  • Automated routing: Approvals go directly to the right managers, reducing back-and-forth and manual forwarding.
  • Transparent tracking: Request status is visible at all times, preventing employees from chasing updates and distracting managers.
  • Automated workflows: By supporting an automated workflow, Approval ensures that reminders, escalations, and status updates happen without manual effort. This reduces bottlenecks, helps managers make decisions faster, and gives teams the clarity to stay focused on priorities.

Lark Mail: Keeping external communication connected

Lark Mail

When communication is external, double entry, and distraction occur when emails are not connected to a project. Employees copy information to another app, or worse, fall behind on important updates hidden in long threads of emails. Lark Mail resolves this disconnect because it connects email to workflows internally. External inputs will always be visible in the documentation, and you will be less likely to spend time on repeated updates.

  • Email trapped in the application: External communications connects directly to projects, which means you don’t have to duplicate work across an inbox and a task tracker.
  • Attachments and context: Files that clients or vendors share can be related to Base records or Docs. There is less chance of getting lost in the loose ends of email threads.
  • Inbox and focus: Threaded views and smart search functions immediately help employees to spend less time sorting through emails, and focusing on actions.
  • Bridging internal and external: A contractor approval or client alert can be linked to internal workflows which lessens the number of repeat updates.

Lark Meetings: Making discussions productive, not repetitive

Lark Messenger

Meetings are often criticized for adding to workplace noise, particularly when outcomes aren’t clear and discussions need to be repeated. Lark Meetings helps reduce this by embedding collaboration into video calls. Teams can edit Docs, assign tasks, and update projects during the meeting, ensuring decisions turn into action without extra steps.

  • Seamless joining: Teams launch calls directly from Calendar or Messenger without juggling logins, keeping meetings focused.
  • Live collaboration: Docs open inside meetings, so agendas, notes, and edits happen during the discussion instead of afterward.
  • Task assignment in real time: Decisions turn into tasks instantly, ensuring outcomes don’t need to be re-explained in follow-up emails.
  • Recordings and transcripts: Meetings are stored for reference, avoiding the noise of repeating the same conversations for absent colleagues.

Conclusion

Noise in the workplace isn’t only distracting, it’s costly. Fragmented tools force workers to repeat tasks, hunt for updates, and sort out who is responsible for what. Unified workflows like those enabled by Lark cut through it all by centralizing where work happens.Wiki keeps knowledge in one place, Base keeps data well-formed, Sheets keeps our analysis clear, Approval speeds up approvals through automation, Mail aligns communication externally, and Meetings make sure discussions lead to action. Together, all of these products foster an environment of focus and with it, genuine workflow.

The power of unified workflows isn’t adding more notifications, it’s reducing the number of notifications. For businesses looking to sharpen focus and amplify their impact, connected platforms designate jobs that should be traded in for valuable progress.

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Bill Seeking Creation of Unified Emergency Number Passes Second Reading

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Unified Emergency Number

By Adedapo Adesanya

Nigeria’s crisis-response bill seeking to establish a single, toll-free, three-digit emergency number for nationwide use passed for second reading in the Senate this week.

Sponsored by Mr Abdulaziz Musa Yar’adua, the proposed legislation aims to replace the country’s chaotic patchwork of emergency lines with a unified code—112—that citizens can dial for police, fire, medical, rescue and other life-threatening situations.

Lawmakers said the reform is urgently needed to address delays, miscommunication and avoidable deaths linked to Nigeria’s fragmented response system amid rising insecurity.

Leading debate, Mr Yar’adua said Nigeria has outgrown the “operational disorder” caused by multiple emergency numbers in Lagos, Abuja, Ogun and other states for ambulance services, police intervention, fire incidents, domestic violence, child abuse and other crises.

He said, “This bill seeks to provide for a nationwide toll-free emergency number that will aid the implementation of a national system of reporting emergencies.

“The presence of multiple emergency numbers in Nigeria has been identified as an impediment to getting accelerated emergency response.”

Mr Yar’adua noted that the reform would bring Nigeria in line with global best practices, citing the United States, United Kingdom and India, countries where a single emergency line has improved coordination, enhanced location tracking and strengthened first responders’ efficiency.

With an estimated 90 per cent of Nigerians owning mobile phones, he said the unified number would significantly widen public access to emergency services.

Under the bill, all calls and text messages would be routed to the nearest public safety answering point or control room.

He urged the Senate to fast-track the bill’s passage, stressing the need for close collaboration with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), relevant agencies and telecom operators to ensure nationwide coverage.

Senator Ali Ndume described the reform as “timely and very, very important,” warning that the absence of a reliable reporting channel has worsened Nigeria’s security vulnerabilities.

“One of the challenges we are having during this heightened insecurity is lack of proper or effective communication with the affected agencies,” Ndume said.

“If we do this, we are enhancing and contributing to solving the security challenges and other related criminalities we are facing,” he added.

Also speaking in support, Senator Mohammed Tahir Monguno said a centralised emergency number would remove barriers to citizen reporting and strengthen public involvement in security management.

He said, “Our security community is always calling on the general public to report what they see.

“There is a need for government to create an avenue where the public can report what they see without any hindrance. The bill would give strength and muscular expression to national calls for vigilance.”

The bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Communications for further legislative work and is expected to be returned for final consideration within four weeks.

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Tinubu Swears-in Ex-CDS Christopher Musa as Defence Minister

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ex-cds christopher musa

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

The former chief of defence staff (CDS), Mr Christopher Musa, has been sworn-in as the new Minister of Defence.

The retired General of the Nigerian Army took the oath of office for his new position on Thursday in Abuja.

The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr Bayo Onanuga, confirmed this development in a post shared on X, formerly Twitter, today.

“General Christopher Musa takes oath of office as Nigeria’s new defence minister,” he wrote on the social media platform this afternoon.

Earlier, President Bola Tinubu thanked the Senate for confirming Mr Musa when he was screened for the post on Wednesday.

“Two days ago, I transmitted the name of General Christopher G. Musa, our immediate past Chief of Defence Staff and a fine gentleman, to the Nigerian Senate for confirmation as the Federal Minister of Defence.

“I want to commend the Nigerian Senate for its expedited confirmation of General Musa yesterday. His appointment comes at a critical juncture in our lives as a Nation,” he also posted on his personal page X on Thursday.

The former military officer is taking over from Mr Badaru Abubakar, who resigned on Sunday on health grounds.

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Presidential Directives Helping to Remove Energy Bottlenecks—Verheijen

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Cut Energy Costs

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Energy, Mrs Olu Verheijen, says Presidential Directives 41 and 42 have emerged as the most transformative policy tools reshaping Nigeria’s oil and gas investment landscape in more than a decade, by helping eliminate bottlenecks.

Mrs Verheijen made this assertion while speaking at the Practical Nigerian Content Forum 2025, noting that the directives issued by her principal in May 2025, are specifically designed to eliminate rent-seeking, slash project timelines, reduce contracting costs, and restore investor confidence in the Nigerian upstream sector.

“These directives are not just policy documents; they are enforceable commitments to make Nigeria competitive again,” she declared.

She noted that before the directives were issued, Nigeria faced chronic delays in contracting cycles, which discouraged capital inflows and stalled major upstream projects.

“For years, investment stagnated because our processes were too slow and too expensive. Presidential Directives 41 and 42 are removing those bottlenecks once and for all,” she said.

According to her, the directives have already begun to shift investor sentiment, unlocking billions of dollars in new commitments from international oil companies.

“We are seeing unprecedented investment inflows. Shell, Chevron and others are returning with confidence because they can now see credible timelines and competitive project economics,” Verheijen said.

Speaking on the link between streamlined contracting and local content development, she stressed that the directives were crafted to reinforce, not weaken, Nigerian participation.

“Local content is not an obstacle; it is a catalyst. It helps us meet national objectives, contain costs, and deliver projects faster when applied correctly,” she explained.

Mrs Verheijen highlighted that the directives complement the government’s data-driven approach to refining local content requirements while ensuring Nigerian talent and enterprises remain central to new investments.

“Our goal is to empower Nigerian companies with opportunities that are commercially sound and globally competitive,” she said.

She pointed to the current spike in industry activity, over 60 active drilling rigs, as evidence that the directives are driving real operational change.

“We have moved from rhetoric to results. These directives have triggered a new cycle of upstream development,” she said.

The energy expert added that the reforms are critical to achieving Nigeria’s production ambition of 3 million barrels of oil and 10 billion standard cubic feet (bscf) of gas per day by 2030.

“To meet these targets, we need speed, efficiency, and collaboration across the value chain. The directives are the foundation for that,” she noted.

She also linked the directives to Nigeria’s broader regional ambitions, including its leadership role in the African Energy Bank.

“With a $100 million facility now launched, we are ensuring that investment translates into jobs, technology transfer, and long-term value for Nigeria,” she said.

Mrs Verheijen concluded by urging the industry to uphold the spirit and letter of the presidential instructions.

“These directives are a collective responsibility. Government, operators, financiers, and host communities must work together to deliver the Nigeria we envision,” she said. “We remain committed to ensuring Nigeria remains Africa’s premier investment destination,” she said.

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