Is Email the Best Way to Communicate and Collaborate?

Two answers - the simple one to the simple question of is Email the best way to communicate and collaborate - answer NO.

The more complex answer to the complex question of how to communicate and collaborate is to use all the possible tools you have that work in your situation including face to face (personal and group settings) , telephone calls (again personal or group) , email, other collaboration tools that are accessible to everyone and your project management software - probably in that order and remembering that not all parties have access/experience with various tools. That tied together with a comprehensive communication plan that addresses the who, when, what and how up front and is followed throughout the execution of the project is the most effective method I have found.

Always remember - meetings, Email, telephones, and project management software are just tools and, as a wise mentor of mine continues to remind me "A fool with a tool is still a fool". The corollary of this is the infamous saying “If you only have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail”. The problems we face today are not that simple and if you are trying to solve them all one way you are destined to failure or at best sub optimal performance.


Posted: Jul 14, 2011 3:12 PM

I don't think email is the best way to communicate - face to face is. But email isn't that bad. I think it is engrained in people's ways of working. It's easy (to the point of being dangerously easy). And using a project management tool doesn't come naturally to everyone; teams are generally larger than the people who have to use the tool constantly. I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts, Ty!

Posted: Jul 15, 2011 5:03 PM

There are a lot of discussions on this topic, both from academics and online forums. Apparently, there is no single best approach as each communication mode has its own goods and bads. For example, face-to-face is good way to get instant response, both verbal and body language, and best fit situation where we need to clarify something. However, face-to-face communication does not give people enough time like email approach to think through what you want to say before saying it. This may increase the possibility that a person being said something inappropriate which might offend others. If you have received a nasty mail from an enraged customer, you may take a day to chill it off before replying (a luxuary that is not possible in face-to-face communication). On the other hand, people may also argue that converations through emails may, in this case, be masqueraded and do not reflect the true intent. So, the debate can go on and on...

What we usually do when defining communication plan in projects is, we will select the most appropriate mode of communication (How), frequency of communication (When), the right content for the communication (What) for the targeted audience (Who) based on the objective of the communication (Why).

Posted: Jul 16, 2011 3:13 PM