In an era when people increasingly communicate via Facebook posts and Tweets, email can seem antiquated. Yet within a corporate environment, email remains the best means of communicating quickly, accurately and reliably to individuals, selective groups, or the entire organization.
But it’s imperfect. The most consistent complaints I’ve heard about internal corporate email is that it is over-used, misused and abused; that there is an over-reliance on it as a medium when other means might be better; and that the sheer volume of email overwhelms most people.
The fact is most organizations haven’t taken a logical approach to email to assure that internal emails are achieving maximum efficiency. You may remember a time when email communications were rare, or even non-existent. But they are so integral to today’s business dynamic, it’s easy to forget just how relatively young the medium is.
Perhaps as a consequence, email communications often exhibit more laziness, sloppiness and inconsistency than any other form of business communication. Poorly conceived emails can derail or even doom relationships, strategy implementation and general morale within organizations.
Are we as mindful of our email communications as we are of our other written and oral communications? In other words, do we prepare our emails with as much care and thought as we do our oral presentations and written reports?
An equally critical problem is people getting deluged with emails. The result is often that much of it goes unread because people just don’t have time to look at everything. I’ve heard repeatedly that people get so many emails from their managers and company leadership that they’re never sure which are important enough to merit their reading the entire communication.
Reminiscent of the “boy who cried wolf,” lots of “important” emails from the CEO result in none being perceived as “important.”
Our instincts say that any communication impacting the entire organization should come from the CEO (or president), since his/her responsibilities cross all profit centers, business areas, functions, and sites. But that would imply that his/her name go atop a significant number of communications – everything from an annual United Way appeal to the rollout of new product offerings and strategies. Pretty soon, everyone is getting a weekly email from the CEO.
In the interests of making better use of intra-company email, I’d like to suggest the following rules:
- Is it too important to use email? Email is so common in a corporate environment that there is little to distinguish between critically important information and superfluous or basic information. If it’s that important, consider other methods besides email, including group meetings, face-to-face chats, videoconferences, etc.
- ALL CAPS? Are you guilty of TYPING IN ALL CAPS? or do you type everything in lower case even when referring to people by name? This is no more acceptable than it would be in a printed document. Follow the same rules. Otherwise, you run the risk of coming across as disrespectful or sloppy.
- Yes, spelling and grammar count. Grammar and spelling errors and typos in emails are as inexcusable as they are in any other business document. Spell check is imperfect. Has your spell check ever allowed “their” when it should have been “there,” or “now” instead of “not?” After using spell check, proofread what you have written and make sure it’s what you intend to say.
- To bcc or not to bcc. Rather than listing dozens of recipients in the “to” or “cc” fields – some of whom might not appreciate having their email addresses shared so broadly – include these addresses in the “bcc” field instead. Obviously, it’s a different story if everyone is from the same organization and expects to be copied on an email. Use your judgment.
- Don’t fight fire with fire. Ever get a nasty email from someone? The temptation might be to respond quickly with an “Oh yeah? Says who?” type of email. The problems with that are two-fold. One, a hasty response might not be a fully considered one. Equally important, however, is that because some people are poor communicators by email, they might not even be angry. Better to use tact. If in doubt, give the person a phone call or visit them face-to-face to seek clarity.
- Bad news. A major faux pas is delivering bad news by email, which in today’s environment can come across as cowardly, callous, or inappropriate. When you’ve got truly bad news or an emergency, either call the person(s) or tell them face-to-face.
- From the top. To assure 100 percent readership of communications from senior leadership that are truly important, adopt a clear delineation of the kinds of emails that should come from the top. As a general rule, matters involving the state of the business (e.g., quarterly and annual reports) and significant news on the progress of a new corporate strategy justify the CEO as the source. In some cases, however, where it impacts the entire organization, having it come from the leadership team as an impersonal entity makes more sense. And, instead of writing a tome (like this blog entry), keep CEO communiqués as brief as possible. Provide a link to relevant intranet pages for additional information.
- Broadcast? The numbers of broadcast emails to an entire organization should be limited. I often hear that people receive too many such emails and that they deem them irrelevant – for instance, news of awards and rewards/recognition for individuals, or promotions of people within the company. In the end, you’ll need an arbiter. Corporate Communications should be the clearinghouse for all such communications, making the determination whether a particular email is truly of interest and value to the entire organization. When in doubt, err on the side of fewer such communiqués. Better still, these kinds of communications should be shifted onto the company intranet web sites.
Follow these basic rules and the value of your internal emails will rise.
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