Do you hide behind technology? Or do use your email as a weapon? Perhaps you’re one of those people who believes your worth in an organisation is directly related to the number of emails you write.
Today on BTalk Australia Phil Dobbie talks to John Ogier from 6 Degrees about how to better manage your communications. They also throw out a challenge that could help prevent technology from getting the better of you.
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- Today’s Transcript:
Dobbie: Good day I’m Phil Dobbie. Today on BTalk, “I’m not here right now”. With so much technology at our fingertips why has it become so difficult for people to communicate?
We’ve all got email, voicemail, SMS a myriad of ways to talk to each other. Is that making it easier or harder to communicate with each other? John Ogier has spent a couple of decades in senior management roles largely in the telecommunications industry in Europe, Asia, and here in Australia. He’s now facilitator at Six Degrees which is a corporate training business. John, what’s the issue here in terms of communications in the workplace?
Ogier: Well, Phil I think a lot of the issues lie around the fact that technology has progressed at such a fantastic level that we can really hide behind it.
Dobbie: In what way like just not getting back to people or?
Ogier: As you said, we’ve got a lot of different areas of technology at our fingertips now and we’ve got voicemail, we’ve got text messaging, email of course is so ubiquitous that it’s very easy for us to disappear off the face of the earth for a little while. Equally though we also tend to complain that we’re always contactable and it’s driving us crazy, so.
Dobbie: Yeah.
Ogier: We’re between a rock and a hard place here.
Dobbie: So, you’re saying people are hiding and yet people are emailing frantically in the office aren’t they? I mean they’re doing the opposite really, surely they’re over-communicating?
Ogier: Well that’s also true, and I think oddly it’s because an email, which is as we know a fantastic communication tool, but it can be so dreadfully overused that, because it’s also very visible. And in, particularly in corporate situations and I’ve certainly had this experience in my corporate life, is that certain individuals in an organisation like to make themselves appear to be incredibly busy by spending, you know, half of their day seemingly firing off lots of different emails whereas perhaps on a telephone you’re not so visible. So, the work that you may be doing on the telephone may not be seen to be contributing as much as it might be as your firing off emails to all and sundry.
Dobbie: So, you’re thinking people are emailing just to say hey look at me I’m busy. Aren’t I important? Because I think, when you were in corporate life how many emails a day were you getting? I think I had a job where about 200 a day on average was my top. And you tend to then start to associate your worth with how many emails you get. You know, you have somebody who says well I only get 50 emails a day and you go well I’m four times more important than you I get 200.
Ogier: That’s right, you must be such a slacker. So, yes, that is a growing problem. And there is always lots of do’s and don’ts around email. And I think partly it’s also because in some corporate situations where, you know, office politics tend to play a pretty big part in our lives, but people are quite concerned about being either indispensable, look how busy I am, or otherwise they’re rather concerned that they may be dispensable. So therefore, I’m going to write as many emails as I can and send off as many different PowerPoint presentations as I can to as many people to make sure everybody knows I’m still here.
Dobbie: So, what are some of the do’s and don’ts around email then?
Ogier: Well, I think one of the major things here is time management. And just being able to treat whether it’s email or voicemail actually similarly as a tool rather than a technology that tends to control us. And some of the do’s for email could be to not allow email to control you but for you to control it. And one good way to do that is just to diarise for say 30 minutes or so early in the morning, around lunch time or just before lunch and perhaps about 4pm, to go through and check the emails that have come in and then act on those important ones straightaway.
Dobbie: Rather than sitting on your email all day and looking and going “Oh look, here comes a new one”.
Ogier: Exactly yeah. And also, try to eliminate that little pop-up window that comes up in the bottom of your screen there that says you have mail.
Dobbie: Right. But if you’re getting 200 emails a day is that going to be enough time? I mean isn’t that part of the problem that you just don’t have time to get through them all?
Ogier: Look, it may well be. And so you do need to be able to prioritise those. And partly again, this is, I think, a communication issue between you and your colleagues where you need to be able to communicate to them in terms of telling them which parts of the business you’re interested to be involved in or cced in and opt out of some of those discussions and some of those areas where people are involving you and perhaps unnecessarily.
Dobbie: So, the other issue is around the long emails that could probably be done better with a phone conversation.
Ogier: Yeah, absolutely. I think we’ve all been in that position as well. You sweat over trying to draft an email which is concise and to the point and gets to all the right areas across. And then after 30 minutes you think, I’ll just pick up the phone. It’s far easier sometimes to be able to do that because the phone is a very intimate way of communicating with somebody. In fact it’s the most intimate way apart from face to face.
Dobbie: And you do get people in the office who they’re almost writing a Dickensian novel in their emails, aren’t they?
Ogier: They are. And I think another area that we could improve our email etiquette, if you will, is to say at the beginning of your message how long it’s going to take the reader to get through it.
Dobbie: Really?
Ogier: Absolutely, just start off your email, particularly if it’s on one page, if it opens up on one page you don’t need to say that. But if it goes on a little bit longer or if there’s an attachment to that email start off by saying this message will take 20 minutes of your time or this email might take you five minutes to read which just gives people an idea of how long it’ll take. Plus it also is something of a leading by example to show us that you do respect their time but it also makes you really think, OK, how important is it if I send these 86 slides to the 25 people. Can I reduce that down and really make sure that I just focus on the areas that are absolutely important here?
Dobbie: So, respect’s an important part of this. Isn’t it really? Are we treating others with disrespect in the way that we communicate?
Ogier: Well, I think it does. Yes, certainly respect comes into play a lot. People often not respecting each other’s time from that perspective, with perhaps just saying look my time is more important than yours. This is the top of my agenda therefore it should be the top of yours. And we really do have to consider the impact that we have on others. And I think that’s something that’s probably lacking. And this is an individual thing but it’s also a cultural thing, I think, in a lot of corporations.
Dobbie: I’ve got another theory why people don’t pick up the phone and they’d rather turn to email apart from, you know, the obvious playing office politics of being seen to be busy. I think some people are just scared of using the phone. I reckon there are some people whose personality is just not predisposed to talking to people on the phone.
Ogier: Yes, and in fact some people do prefer to have written communication, other people prefer to pick up the phone and communicate that way. And if you can assess perhaps what is the right way for me to communicate with this particular individual then that can also short circuit for you to your favour the right communication method to use. Some cultures, for example, some corporate cultures seem to be favouring email particularly over the telephone these days. But, a lot of their customers perhaps might still prefer to be a bit more traditional and have a telephone conversation with a real live human being. And that’s I think where some of these cultures tend to collide.
Dobbie: Isn’t it interesting you and I both worked in telecommunications. I don’t know an industry like it for where people just don’t want to talk on the phone.
Ogier: Yeah, actually I’m very disappointed to have to agree with you there because technology companies seem to be, perhaps one of the areas that they used technology perhaps more than others or certainly hide behind it perhaps more than others. Let’s put it that way.
Dobbie: Now, can we live without some of this technology? I mean I know some people who don’t have voicemail, and there argument is well that’s because it’s a waste of time picking up voicemail. It obviously takes a long time to go through all those messages. And, if you really need me you’re going to try me several times on the phone. But, it drives you mad doesn’t it if you can’t really leave a message if somebody’s not around.
Ogier: Yeah, it is a problem. I think the way that we leave messages is also an area for improvement that if you do have to leave someone a voicemail message then do so in a way which is short and to the point stating clearly who you are, where you’re from, and early in the message what your telephone number is, what your call-back number is. Don’t say it too quickly so the people have to keep replaying, replaying in order to write it down. So, say it nice and slowly as if imagining that somebody’s on the other end of the phone writing it down as you as you say it. And then, just be very short about what the call is about and then getting off the phone because there’s nothing worse than hearing somebody blabbing on about in a six-minute telephone message about what the reason is they’re trying to call you.
Dobbie: So, should we offer a challenge today if we’re so reliant on technology? You know, can we live without it? Perhaps a challenge is to say in your email, look I’m not responding to emails today. Why don’t you call me? And I bet you a lot of issues will be resolved a lot faster that way.
Ogier: I think a lot of issues would be resolved a lot more quickly and far better for the brand of the company as well because people are not going to be let down so much for waiting around also far better for your personal reputation in order to be able to respond to calls more quickly. I think it’s a great idea. Yeah, let’s put that challenge out there. Put, “I’m sorry I’m unavailable” on your email out of office message, “Sorry, I’m unavailable right now, but the better way to catch me is on the telephone here are my two numbers my desk phone and my mobile.”
Dobbie: Alright and let us know how you go. Alright listen, I’ve got to stop talking now we’ve been talking for 10 minutes. I’ve got to go check my email. Thanks for your time, John.
