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Tell Me What You Want Me To Do Print E-mail
Tuesday, 15 April 2008

Are you overwhelmed by a mountain of email?

I suggest you take a page out of the playbook of my colleague Eric Sperley who knows how to ask for what he wants.

Eric sent the following message to the people who reported to him:

Guys,

Look, I am getting well over 250 emails a day. I can get 10-20 a day from each of you where I am just cc'd. I already have 71 email messages just this morning. I also get a ton of messages from the PMO, BSP's, and on and on. I am very concerned that I/You don't miss something important.

I may be missing something. If I am, please let me know. Otherwise, let us tighten this operation up a bit.

If I get an email from you, I should be on the To... line. I see no reason why I need to be on the Cc... line. Your email should say:

1) Eric, I need you to: (Tell me what you need me to do.)

2) Eric, you need to be aware of the following situation: (Summarize the situation and tell me why I need to know, i.e. history, risks, and what you think I need to do.)

3) Eric, I have a question: (State your question)

I will attempt to do the same. I will ask other teams to do the same. I do realize that teams do need to post status, but that is a different type of communication all together.

What do you think? If we could get everyone in the company to do this, we could free up a couple of hours a day of reading email.

Thanks,
Eric

This message was highly effective. It reduced the number of emails Eric and the members of his team received. And when someone received a message they understood what was being asked of them. The sender told them clearly either what they wanted them to do, what they wanted them to know, or what question they needed them to answer.

Messages like this from people whose opinion count the most in organizations would eliminate the deluge of worthless emails received by people in organization after organization. This simple message starts a revolution to improve communication. My, oh my, imagine that, you receive less messages and the messages you do receive are meaningful! That's something worth asking for.

You can start a communication revolution in your company -- ask for what you want -- send a message like Eric's now.

©2008 Steven M. Smith

 

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Communication  Leadership  Management 

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ACTION Required
written by Dwayne Phillips , April 23, 2008

In a past life, I used an e-communication system that required us to number the paragraphs. Paragraph 1. had to state either:

1. Action required para x.

or

1. No action required, info only.

That worked well. Somehow we forgot how to do that.



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