how can we improve e-mails?

How can we

improvee-mails?

Question # 1

How can weavoid using ”cc”?

Every 100 people needlessly copied on an e-mail results in 8 hours of lost productivity, when accounting for the time it takes people to read, delete and return to work.

Jonathan Spira, chief analyst at research firm Basex.

http://blogs.wsj.com/atwork/2012/12/28/the-productivity-crushing-power-of-reply-to-all/

http://www.wnyc.org/story/everybody-hates-micromanager/

Hi leaders, how important is it for you to want to be copied on every e-mail people whom you serve send?

How much in control do you need to be?

Further inspiration

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Questions-to-discover-your-values-1329394

Question # 2

How can weavoid writing in CAPITALS?

IF YOU WRITE IN CAPITALS IT SEEMS AS IF YOU ARE

SHOUTING.

http://fusion.net/story/42057/caps-lock/http://www.forbes.com/pictures/eikh45femi/all-caps/

Question # 3

How short is your e-mail?

If you need to write an e-mail, make it brief.

http://hbr.org/tip?date=052013http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/4438.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/technology/25apple.html?ref=technology

People are more helpful when they’re given

clear directions on how to contribute.

ExampleOne student got an answer from then-Google CEO Eric Schmidt by asking him when in his life he was happiest. Schmidt responded: “Tomorrow.”

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20130624114114-69244073-6-ways-to-get-me-to-email-you-back

Question # 4

How relevant is thee-mail subject line?

Use the subject line to summarize the e-mail.

Sourceshttp://hbr.org/tip?date=052013http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/4438.html

When people are busy, the emails that get read are the ones with practical subject lines.

Example”How to get to the event location in Beijing.”

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20130624114114-69244073-6-ways-to-get-me-to-email-you-back

Question # 5

How do weavoid abbreviations?

The e-mail recipient might not be aware of the meanings of the abbreviations.

http://www.emailreplies.com/

Question # 6

How often do you send a link instead of an attachment?

Question # 7

How is the language in your e-mail?

Further inspiration

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Dialogue-or-discussion-1567510

Question # 8

How can you mimicthe person you are

communicating with?

One strategy that has been found to be very effective across settings is to engage in behavioural mimicry.

ExampleUse emoticons as well as words / slang / jargon in the same way as the person, with whom you are communicating, is using them.

https://hbr.org/2015/04/the-dos-and-donts-of-work-email-from-emojis-to-typos

Question # 9

How well do youserve the person

you communicate with?

We tend to be overly focused on ourselves and our own goals, while

failing to amply account for other people’s perspectives.

https://hbr.org/2015/04/the-dos-and-donts-of-work-email-from-emojis-to-typos

Question # 10

At what time of the day do you send e-mails?

At Vynamic, a healthcare consultancy in Philadelphia, e-mail is discouraged between 10pm and 7am during the week, and all day on weekends.

https://hbr.org/2015/03/your-late-night-emails-are-hurting-your-team

Question # 11

Do you know where the recipient of your e-mail is?

http://www.timeanddate.com/time/map/

Before writing ”have a good afternoon” in an e-mail, consider in which time zone the person, you send the e-mail to, is

Further inspiration

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Globalization-2173145

Question # 12

How often do you check your e-mails?

A study shows that regaining our initial momentum following an interruption can

take, on average, upwards of 20 minutes.

https://hbr.org/2014/07/the-cost-of-continuously-checking-email/

Further inspiration

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/769046140

Question # 13

How good are you at keeping your inbox clean?

# 1: Delete.Delete any messages you don't need to read or keep.

# 2: Respond.Reply to messages that can be handled immediately.

# 3: Archive.If it’s a task for someone else, archive the e-mail.

3 actions to keep your inbox clean

https://www.good.is/articles/clean-up-your-inbox-pro-tips-from-a-gmail-insiderhttps://hbr.org/2012/02/stop-email-overload-1.htmlhttps://hbr.org/2009/05/how-to-keep-your-email-under-c.html

When executives at a London-based firm reduced the number of e-mails they sent, other employees did as well.

http://hbr.org/2013/09/to-reduce-e-mail-start-at-the-top/ar/1

If you’re a leader, your actions influence the culture. If you choose to refrain from sending late night e-mails, people whom you serve won’t feel pressured to check their devices.

Adapted fromhttps://hbr.org/2015/09/fixing-our-unhealthy-obsession-with-work-email

Question # 14

What about using chat and/or other social media

instead of e-mail?

A 5 minute chat may be more efficient

than crafting a message that adequately explains the situation.

http://hbr.org/tip?date=011713

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Sourceshttps://slack.com/https://www.yammer.com/

The instant you read emotion in their response, or feel it yourself - change mediums.

Even a phone call lets you hear nuances in tone, silences, and other data that help you address emotions. Skype or video conferencing gives you even more information.

https://hbr.org/2015/03/you-can-have-constructive-conflict-over-email

People, who work for Automattic, the company that runs Wordpress, rarely use email.

Instead they use internal blogs, chat rooms, and Skype.

http://blogs.hbr.org/berkun/2013/03/how-wordpress-thrives-with-a-1.html

The most damaging cost of thoughtless e-mail: It prevents us from doing our best work.

http://thenextweb.com/entrepreneur/2014/11/09/quitting-email-helped-company-team-communicate-better/http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesleadershipforum/2012/10/25/i-banned-all-internal-e-mails-at-my-company-for-a-week/http://www.managementexchange.com/hackathon/contribution/big-enemy-good

Sourceshttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204452104577060103165399154.htmlhttp://bc.pcworld.dk/art/204243/her-er-aarsagen-til-at-vi-har-lagt-e-mailen-for-hadhttp://epn.dk/teknologi2/computer/article2745851.ecehttp://atos.net/en-us/about_us/zero_email/default.htm

The companies Atos, Klick, and Exformaticsstopped using internal e-mails.

https://twitter.com/frankcalberg