How do you prefer to communicate? Is email evil? Do you prefer face-to-face, or are you addicted to your Blackberry?

Sometimes I do get overwhelmed by the number of emails that come flooding into my inbox and it's hard to keep on top of them. When I need to remain completely focused on a task in hand, I have to close down my inbox so they don't keep on popping up on my screen and distracting me away from the task in hand.

It's always tempting to think, oh yeah, I better reply to that. Face-to-face is important: I actually wrote a posting on this very subject: Do you catch-up? Planting seeds for innovation and I believe that face-to-face will always have it's place in the new world of work, yet email and virtual working has allowed the world to become flatter and connect global teams together.

I guess, that it's a matter of learning to prioritise your workload in new ways. There's always the option that if emails do get deleted accidentally, that if the person really wants to get hold of you, then they will pick up the phone.

However, over at Personnel Today, there's an article titlted. Netiquette: How to make your e-mails mean business which means that there is an onus on the sender to make sure their email has a specific business benefit and your emails are carefully constructed so that there is no room for sloppiness or for the email to be cc: into a bunch of people who really don't need to be a part of the trail.

I agree with you Natalie that electronic comms can be liberating and, used properly, helps to bring people closer together.  Any form of written comms has benefits like recording comments in time; providing a clear reference we can refer to in our own time and at our own speed; gives us an opportunity to "mass broadcast" quickly and a chance to return to the reader for clarification etc.

However, we tend to take for granted that "common sense" will dictate good practice and yet:

- blanket bombing and cc'ing is rife

- the assumption abounds that simply because we've pressed SEND, we've communicated

- despite how well we feel we've crafted the message we can never take into account the receiver's filters like bias and the culture/climate in which the message is being received, often leading to misinterpretation

Creating protocols is a start but there's but whatever technical advances are around the corner, "face to face first" has got to be the rallying cry for premier communicators wouldn't you say?

 Hi there,

 I agree with a lot of what you've said, Ian - particularly the point about how we can never know how any one email is intrepreted and what the receiver's 'filters' are.

I find it interesting to note how different people treat emails. I have a friend who almost never replies to emails, regardless of content, and another who emails fervently on a regular basis, whether we've just met up for a coffee that day or not.

 I feel it's important to recognise what works for other people in order to build rapport and enhance communication. I personally feel you can't beat a face-to-face meeting, however I always strive to ask new clients what their communication preference is - telephone, email, text, snail mail, face-to-face meetings, combination? This way I know from the outset what their preferred communication method(s) is(are) so I can tailor my service delivery accordingly.

Emer

Engaging Company

http://www.engagingcompany.com