Written by Clare Haynes, Managing Director, Wildfire

Email attack!!! Are we all under attack from email? Email can damage our office sanity and our business efficiency. How should we combat it?

As the sender, it’s easy to hit “send” with an attachment than issue paper/verbal explanations. It’s easier to “send” requests/instructions by email when receivers can’t inconvenience you with questions, such as “how exactly do you want this done?”

BUT you wouldn’t…. a) continue speaking to what becomes evident is a a non-English speaker when they respond only with a blank expression or b) speak to someone’s desk when they weren’t present? …would you?

Of course you wouldn’t waste such time. However, millions of us do so everyday by email. If someone doesn’t fully adopt what you sent, it’s wasted. Even “but I sent you…” doesn’t wash because we’re inundated.

It’s well publicised how Phones 4U founder John Caudwell banned internal emails and replaced them with face-to-face meetings, saving workers 3 hours per day and £1m per month in wasted time. Cadillac this week revealed how their research (of 1000 UK business people) found that a real working day is only 3.5 hours, with 20 hours per week per person wasted. Emails are the number one culprit for unnecessary distractions. Cadillac propose, as an alternative communication medium, that you rent one of their chauffeured cars for meetings!..

Here are some less revolutionary alternatives:

• Pick up the phone – you build rapport and practice the informal skills that make office politics easier
• Go for coffee – if you want to talk to someone it should be 2-way and you’ll have less stress and save time (caffeinated or not) – plus you may pick up other business titbits too!
• Email sparingly. If you must, then ensure be focused and respectful of their time. Persistent over-emailers are filtered out as “less interesting” (a bit like a friend who sends joke emails but never one asking how you are!)
• If you want feedback try asking for comments on paper – people enjoy physically “marking” others’ efforts – and it may be quicker than by email
• Demonstrate some personal gravitas, or importance for your subject, by calling a meeting (with a 3-point agenda and a 30 minute timeframe. It’s complimentary, in asking for someone’s real input. Responses by email may be lower in quality and quantity.

Happy non-emailing!

For more information, please contact Clare Haynes at Wildfire on 0845 430 9101.

http://www.wildfirecoaching.com/