E-Mail vs. Communication
From the Eye on the Workforce Blog
by Joe Wynne
Workforce management is a key part of project success, but project managers often find it difficult to get trustworthy information on what really works. From interpersonal interactions to big workforce issues we'll look the latest research and proven techniques to find the most effective solutions for your projects.
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Our ability to write has not yet begun to transfer information that face to face communication allows. The e-mail reader is not able to decipher our true meaning by looking at our body language and facial expressions, which account for 65-93% of the message (depending on the expert you ask). In fact, more than one study has shown that "participants were only able to accurately communicate sarcasm and humor" in about half of the e-mails they sent! Worse, writers had no idea their views were being misinterpreted.
This is important to remember if you are a project manager who has many reasons to communicate well to motivate, inform, clarify, recognize performance, and so on. Readers cannot read "you" in an e-mail so be very careful. Experts suggest you re-read e-mails, read them aloud, or save them and look them over again later. Certainly avoid humor or sarcasm when it may be misinterpreted. Perhaps v-mail maybe our future. Leave e-mails for mass firings.
(was that sarcasm?)
Posted on: October 05, 2008 10:31 PM |
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Comments (2)
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Jeff Dahl
Project Leader| Edward Jones
Maryland Heights, Mo, United States
I find email one of the slowest, most ineffective way to communicate with my project team. I use email now to communicate status only for the most part. If I have a question that several people need to give their input on then I will use email, but for day to day questions I either will call them and leave a message or walk over and ask them directly.
 | rshahidi |
Agree if you are a small team (10 or under) working in the same floor and all speak fluent English. I believe Email is a good way to formalise things (someone is bound to deny receiving the information one day!). Emails can also act as a reminder tool (none of us are getting any younger!!!). But there are ways to almost halve the amount of Emails that is generated within a team. One method is to create an Intranet or a Wiki (e.g. Twiki, MediaWik, etc.). These tools can be used [in conjunction] with Email so as to avoid duplication of information, and provide a platform for brainstorming, planning, etc.
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