Email can be a pain, but can we try to respect each others time?
Do you actually read your email or do you just skim it and send back half baked responses? I fear that the world of “Getting Things Done” has been misinterpreted into “I’ve sent you a question via email, but I’m too damn busy to read it and respond” Are you putting too much time in carefully answering your emails? Or are you one of the ones who answers a three part question in the subject line with the response of “Thanks for the Info”
These are Human Communications
It’s weird how we look at our computers as a disconnect between yourself and another individual. If someone took the time to correspond to you by snail mail on some nice paper you would probably respond in kind and think how nice it was to get a personal handwritten letter. What is the difference with email?
Respect?
I first was introduced to this world in my last job where executive A would send me a question via email and I would carefully send back a response. Many times the response would include questions to help clarify the needs and it seemed that I would never get the answers back to those questions. As far as I am concerned they didn’t read the email I sent at all but rather wasted my time.
How about when you prep a business partner, client or individual for a meeting via email? You arrive to the meeting and you find that they have not read any of the prep material? They responded to you when you emailed them. In fact they thanked you for all of the great info, but when it came down to rubber meeting the road they didn’t have a clue. Frankly, I just don’t understand this and I have to watch that person scramble for the information as the meeting is going on. Again, further wasting everyones time.
Time Management?
Recently, Amber Naslund gave a talk at Blog World on Time Management and she told us a story about how at one point she was so backed up on email that she had to delete a massive number of emails. I get this and I so feel her pain, but this to me is not effective. The rule of “They will get back to me if it’s important” will not always come true. Instead the person on the other end of the discussion feels ignored and will just move past it on their own. Please don’t misconstrue this as a hit towards Amber because I have done the same thing before. However, I hope it was the last time I ever need to do that.
Here are some of my thoughts about how some of these issues can get resolved:
- Start using bullets. Bullets get read.
- Keep things as short as possible. Cut out the fluff.
- Stop pressing the “Respond to ALL” button.
- Give proper attention, especially when YOU are asking the questions.
- Respect people for the time they take in corresponding. We are all busy.
Remember, we are all human here. It’s difficult to scale sometimes but don’t work really hard to develop contacts, associates and clients only to blow them off in the long run.
I know people have strong opinions on the subject. Feel free to leave me your thoughts in the comment section.
Keith Burtis is a social media and digital marketing professional. If you or your company are looking to REV THE ENGINE on your digital efforts contact Keith today! Specialties include: Blog design/Integration, Custom Facebook Pages, Social, Digital and Interactive Content strategies.
Comments
Keith, I resonate with this. Civility and customer service are huge for me and that includes email etiquette. We need to put the personal into computers.
The insidious ease of the Reply All is indeed a major culprit. It is ironic that many email programs still use the term CC or carbon copy, for sending an email to many people; the original physical carbon copy process was tedious and limited. In pre-photocopier or mimeograph days sending out multiple copies was a pain. But as we “progressed” each new technology made it easier and easier to inundate each other with irrelevance.
We need a new technology (e.g. intelligent agents) to help us cope with the existing technology, and I find this sadly ironic.
I wonder what would happen if we all agreed to observe “Quill Pen Fridays.” Sounds peaceful and quiet to me 
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I could not agree with you more. People who are considerate of other people’s time & energy are remembered for that. Unfortunately, I think the higher up a person is in the corporate structure the less they feel this is necessary. The sad fact is, if those people don’t help you do your job effectively through open communication, you are still the one holding the bag. I am always conscious of this and try to respond to others with the same consideration I would like paid to myself.
Thanks for this reminder.
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