Process Alchemy

One of the typical complaints I hear from staff and executives alike concerns the overwhelming number of emails they receive. Ultimately, the intent is to communicate something. That’s the rationale for sending out hundreds of emails, sometimes in a day! But when I ask, “Is this effective?,” the answer is usually, “No”. People ignore these emails, misunderstand the intended message or don’t read them because they get buried in their inbox.

Upon further investigation, it’s dawned on me that email is being incorrectly used for several tasks.

Communicating important notifications

1. Managers using email to send information on changes, policy updates, notifications, etc.
2. Staff cc’ing supervisors or others as an FYI

What’s wrong with doing this? First, if you send many emails on a daily/weekly basis, the “important” ones can get lost in someone’s inbox. Therefore, it’s hard to know if someone reads the message or even understands it. Second, you’re asking everyone who receives your messages to create their own system on how to handle and store them. It may be an Outlook folder, a sticky note, a print-out of a memo in a binder, etc. Therefore, you’re likely to get various levels of compliance if the notification includes an instruction or change in policy/procedure.

Sending out reports

1. Includes daily, weekly, monthly – any kind of routine report

What’s the big deal? Chances are, when you send out a report, one of two things happen: people delete it or they save it. If they delete it, then you have to wonder why this person is on the distribution list to begin with. If they save it, you’re now creating potentially hundreds of copies of similar reports that consume people’s inboxes or network folders (network storage isn’t free). What if you create different versions? Now many people have to once again create their own systems to organize and track all these reports and versions.

Sending out key metrics

This isn’t inherently a bad thing; however, you might be better served by implementing dashboards with key metrics that are visibly seen by everyone. Sharing information publicly can also bring to light bigger issues and allow teams to find solutions.

So how do you deal with email overload? Figure out why emails are being sent out and what purpose they serve. If it’s to ask brief questions that need an immediate response, chat may be a better solution. If your intent is to announce policy changes or anything else that requires action, a central repository such as SharePoint may be a better option. That way, people can easily go back and find information based on category, topic, or other relevant search field.

If you send routine reports, create a central repository for this report and simply send out links to it. This trains staff to know where to seek information and creates less work trying to manage their inboxes. If the message is of huge importance and misinterpretation is unacceptable, hold a meeting to ensure that the appropriate staff hear the message and ask questions.

With a small change in how you handle information in your company, you can greatly reduce the number of emails while increasing the effectiveness of your communications.