The two crucial changes (which incidentally are the first on Dave's list) that need to happen are:
1. Reducing the use of attachments. Sending out hotlinks for fixed documents or update notifications for documents being modified via a wiki is fine. But this will be a big jump for many organisations where the main content collaboration tool is email + MS Word with "track changes" turned on. The exception to this might be documents transferred between organisations - i.e. you can send & receive attachments from external parties but not internal ones.
2. Broadcast emails. It's here that an unholy pact has developed between managers and their subordinates. Managers First: Communicating things is hard. You probably need to do it several different ways. And then you need check that people have both understood your message and are willing and able to act on it (if they don't need to act on it then why the hell are you telling them?). This takes a lot of time and it's generally much easier to fire out an ambiguous email to hundreds of people. Subordinates Second: Paying attention to senior people is hard. And they may ask you to do crazy things. Saying that you didn't read it on the portal or you weren't at the meeting or that you missed that email are great ways to avoid direct conflict with your manager (or their manager or their etc). There are times when broadcast emails are appropriate but they are comparatively rare.
Given the growing number of tools, we need to be clear which tool we are going to use for what. Developing post-email (but not anti-email) policies and practices is a critical part of this.
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4 comments:
Matt,
Some of the major issues in dealing with email is a lack of a standard structure and attributes. There are some common fields and attributes but nearly every email server out there from sendmail to exchange have thier own little bits and pieces that only work in their space. Another reason why spam is clogging our arteries.
Cory
But you were born to lead a crusade Matt, I had the banners all ready and waiting for issue
Dave Snowden
Cory,
Isn't the relative lack of standard structure (i.e. its simplicity) one of the reasons that email is so ubiquitous? Is it too late to introduce further standards in this area?
Matt
Matt, I agree. A couple of observations:
re 1: people use attachments now because there's nothing they can link to that's universally accessible, in the average organisation. Have you ever tried putting a shortcut into an email to a document on a shared network drive? So have I, and I gave up too. Organisations need shared, web-based repositories.
re 2: Perhaps one day the CEO's or HR department's blog will be so compelling that no-one would dream of not subscribing to it via RSS and not reading the feed? ;-)
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