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Vox Pop: Patterns for email as work conversation?
Merlin Mann | Mar 12 2008
Inbox Zero is a system and philosophy that most benefits people who are overwhelmed by a high-volume of mystery meat email. The system works because it's stupid-simple, and the real art comes out of getting fast and ruthless at identifying requests for your time and attention that must be acknowledged or completed vs. the vast majority of stuff that needs very light attention (or can just get deleted). But, not so fast -- what if, instead, you're receiving a high volume of easily identifiable messages? And what if your main "action" is reading, digesting, and then contributing? That's a bit trickier, as I have learned. Every time I give the Inbox Zero talk to a tech-heavy group -- and most especially when I talk with engineers -- there's pushback on a couple issues. First, a lot of techies say they love it when everything gets routed through email, and second, they think an Inbox-Zero-type methodology isn't particularly useful for the type of communication that they get all day long. And that's conversations. Lots of conversations. For many tech folks, email is the ideal and preferred way to avoid meetings and pointless flights. It's where they discuss features, debate implementation, and argue over the best solution to a problem. And that's how they like it. Some companies I visit with tell me they take pride in generating over 1000 person-messages each day. That's their culture, and love it or leave it. This doesn't mean there's not room for improvement, but of course it's a valid and very real way to work. Do stay tuned after the jump for your chance to join the conversation with comments and tips for managing conversational email, but first here's my observations on a few patterns that seem to work for a high volume of conversation based email:
The Question to YouIf your job requires you to keep up with a very high-volume of conversation email, please share your favorite tricks. Is the high-volume list-based system working for you? What helps you keep on top of things? What bits of Inbox Zero do and don’t help? If you could change one thing about the way your team handles email conversations today, what would it be? 16 Comments
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It starts from the top...Submitted by Darrel Girardier on March 12, 2008 - 10:24am.
I think the clarification on the need for email conversations is so much easier if the people above (i.e. management) are the ones who are modeling when to cut off the email and move to face to face meetings. That might seem too obvious, however I find that often managers don't know how much power they wield in that area. One great in-house rule is simply when we get past X number of emails/replies on a topic it is time to move face to face. It takes a little policing, but it catches on. Of course I also find that a lot of times if I am first to suggest face to face, more often than not it kills the conversation and saves my inbox sanity. » POSTED IN:
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