I’ve been thinking over the last few days of the key differences between the various electronic forms of communication that I use online. Email, discussion groups, weblogs, chat and wikis all have distinct characteristics that make them good for certain tasks and not so good for others.
It is not surprising then that I see a post from Bob Andrew on Using Email as a Management Tool. Bob’s particular example highlights some of the dangers of email.
Many people are finding that they cannot cope with emails. It just takes too much time to handle everything. While I think that this a more of a time management issue, I do become concerned when people use email as a management tool. You may be familiar with “Why did you not do such and such a thing. I told you you do it in my email to you”
Emails lead to situations such as this because there is often unclear request. Emails are usually “fired off” notes without a clear context or request for action. This leads to the recipient being unsure what to do, or allows them the freedom to ignore the request. Anyway, why should somebody chase up your request when you haven’t even bothered to speak to them personally.
Bob continues with:
Kaitlin Duch Sherwood has a very nice article, with lots of references and guidelines on using email in A Beginner’s Guide to Effective Email
This is worth reading for the points on emotion. Emails are emotionless (as are most forms of online communication) and we would do well to remember that.
I share Bob’s concerns about using email as management tool but I don’t believe it should not be used at all. Many people don’t understand the intricacies of email and so use it to create more problems that it solves. Understanding the medium and making compensation for its faults does make it valuable. This goes for all communication forms.