Wednesday, May 04, 2005
User-centric mail
There is an principle of communication stating that the meaning of a communication is the response you get. Applying this simple principle to management reveals a myriad of useful practices.
When writing a mail, think carefully of who the audience of that mail is. Use this to define your approach. Is the audience more interested in headlines or details, in the story or the punchline? Most analysts, programmers and architects enjoy minutae. Most managers and executives require predominately headlines. Put what is most important at the top of your mail and what is least, at the bottom.
This user-centric approach to writing mail came from a lifetime of empirical study: reading many mails, and my teams will testify, writing many too. I act more quickly on pithy posts and react significantly more slowly to massive missives. In turn, I too learned that quick mails got quick results. I notice in myself and others that sometimes this necessitates writing a long mail first or planning out the message on paper in order to generate all the necessary arguments. Then a merciless pruning is necessary to the cut to the quick.
Some team members have not yet learnt to get the bare essentials of their arguments without writing everything down first. The only guidance they need is the indefatigable cardboard cut-out: imagine their audience as a great big cardboard cut-out model, standing behind them as they talk through the mail. How would they react? How could they change their mail to get a better reaction.
When writing a mail, think carefully of who the audience of that mail is. Use this to define your approach. Is the audience more interested in headlines or details, in the story or the punchline? Most analysts, programmers and architects enjoy minutae. Most managers and executives require predominately headlines. Put what is most important at the top of your mail and what is least, at the bottom.
This user-centric approach to writing mail came from a lifetime of empirical study: reading many mails, and my teams will testify, writing many too. I act more quickly on pithy posts and react significantly more slowly to massive missives. In turn, I too learned that quick mails got quick results. I notice in myself and others that sometimes this necessitates writing a long mail first or planning out the message on paper in order to generate all the necessary arguments. Then a merciless pruning is necessary to the cut to the quick.
Some team members have not yet learnt to get the bare essentials of their arguments without writing everything down first. The only guidance they need is the indefatigable cardboard cut-out: imagine their audience as a great big cardboard cut-out model, standing behind them as they talk through the mail. How would they react? How could they change their mail to get a better reaction.
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Great post Robin. As the recipient of hundreds of emails per day, I would add that email is sometimes not the correct communications vehicle at all. While email has quite a few useful purposes - quick communications of reminders of work to be done, status reports, etc. - it is often used to conduct complex discussions or to argue some arcane business point. These discussions are almost always best held face to face so the point gets across clearly, and the recipient is not faced with the daunting task of reading large volumes of lengthy emails. If email is absolutely necessary, give the reader a break and consider using it only as a transport layer for some other medium, such as a well-authored Power Point presentation.
Absolutely agreed. I think just getting authors to understand intention before writing a mail would be a good first step. 7 times out of 10, that would stop people writing a mail and choose a more appropriate medium.
Depending on how you think, written online discussions can still be very valuable in exploring ideas. Blogging, discussion boards or IM all have their place.
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Depending on how you think, written online discussions can still be very valuable in exploring ideas. Blogging, discussion boards or IM all have their place.
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