The Reliability of Email in Project-Related Communication

"Let's all jump on the networking bandwagon, and forget in the process that mobile devices handle emails just fine. So the younger generation doesn't use email anymore, huh? Somebody warn Google, quick—let them know that Gmail is a dead-end. Also, since when did companies undergo a revolution in their infrastructure for the sake of the latest interns? It's going to be a while before emails disappear, if they ever do, so don't go burying your Outlook just yet," says Julien.

I remember when email first entered the workplace. I thought it was just another excuse not to talk to people. Face-to-face communication by the way, was considered by those who responded to my question as the "best way" to communicate. There is no doubt that face-to-face communication is the best way to communicate about most things. However, in the context of capturing project-related communication to facilitate collaboration or create an audit trail, face-to-face communication does have a few weaknesses (my ability to accurately capture notes and my memory of the myriad conversations I have about work every day being just two of them—and I don't think I'm the only one that struggles with them either).

Returning from Japan this week, the weakness of email has been staring me in the face for the last couple of days. While on the road, I make it a priority to try to manage my in-box and address all those emails that are of a critical nature, putting off the others until I return and have the time to sift through the backlog (which after a week on the road is rather overwhelming). What's more, I don't think I'm alone. Email, although a critical part of how I communicate with my colleagues, is not the most efficient way to capture project-related communication. Most of us are making daily determinations about what email we really need to read right now, what email can be put off and even what email can be ignored—not to mention the email threads that get lost or misinterpreted. Which brings me to the premise of today's discussion.

While in Japan I spent some time visiting customers and met a very brilliant project leader for Toyo Engineering who told us about how she has eliminated project-related emails within her organization using AtTask. She shared how communication that takes place within the software is captured and available for review and comment much more easily than email; and can be coded and sorted by project, making it easy to reference previous conversations and incorporate comments into reports, etc.

Her objectives have been to eliminate the information that gets lost, forgotten or misplaced when conversations about projects and tasks take place within disparate tools like email or outside of any structure at all, like conversations that rely on memory. I'm looking forward to continued dialog with her to learn more about how she took this leap and the results she's getting, but in the mean time, I'm convinced that if you rely on email as your collaboration medium you aren't working with the best tool.

On a final note, Julien asks, "...since when did companies undergo a revolution in their infrastructure for the sake of the latest interns?" If we had taken this attitude when email was first introduced, I'd still be using my IBM Selectric and carbon paper. Adapting to current communication trends just makes sense to me. How we incorporate them within our project teams probably depends most upon the team—however, utilizing metaphors that are accessible and easily understood seems to be the best approach as far as I'm concerned. If that means abandoning email like my new friend in Japan, I think that's a decision I can support.

What are you doing to encourage communication and collaboration in a way that captures critical information for later reference and review?