I love e-mails. It’s an excellent way to recognise people among their peers en masse and to keep a project team on the same page. It has also made live meetings almost obsolete, as more “meetings” take place through online exchanges.
But there is also a dark side to this productivity spiker. We’ve stopped talking to people. The nuances that a person to person conversation deliver cannot be captured in an e-mail. In fact, most times you think someone has heard you, once you press send.
Some companies have decreed live interface, because e-mails are being used to “CYA” rather than ensure that the job gets done whatever the challenge. I think we need to talk to each other more. Limit e-mails to confirming instructions received, but let the first communication be in the flesh or on the phone/skpye.
It’s so much nicer to talk to a person rather than to a keyboard.
