10 ms·

When you are one of two or three people in an open ended back-and-forth conversation, often a 15 minute phone call can save a dozen three paragraph emails (plus

by adamtj 16y ago

When you are one of two or three people in an open ended back-and-forth conversation, often a 15 minute phone call can save a dozen three paragraph emails (plus the dozen interruptions) over the course of several hours. You get your answer sooner, you have fewer total interruptions, and you spend less time over-explaining, because listeners can instantly indicate their understanding. Email is a relatively low-bandwidth channel that's inappropriate for high-bandwidth problems. Sometimes, a 5 sentence email is great. Other times, you need phone call. Sometimes, it's worth flying to meet somebody face to face for an hour.

sp4rki 16y ago
That may be so on your case, but I've found in my experience that generally if a phone call is more productive than email it's because the topic at hand has not been developed enough to use a quick action based method to deal with the communication. I believe there are three situations in which a phone call is better than an email. A sales pitch, which would be a gazillion times more efficient if done face to face; a brainstorming conversation, which would be a lot better if it was divided in a solitary work period followed by a cumulative peer based review in person; and when there's a imperative need to switch directions ASAP, which will hinder productivity anyways however you look at it. Of course your millage may vary and I'm not trying to convince you your're wrong, specially because you aren't since this is a a topic very influences by personal preference. I just find that every instance where the telephone could outdo an email, is because either the parties involved where not properly prepared with the required resources in their possession, or because the type of communication was not meant to be written in the first place. Generally this last type works better in person. Almost always.

by adamtj 16y ago

sp4rki 16y ago

That may be so on your case, but I've found in my experience that generally if a phone call is more productive than email it's because the topic at hand has not been developed enough to use a quick action based method to deal with the communication. I believe there are three situations in which a phone call is better than an email. A sales pitch, which would be a gazillion times more efficient if done face to face; a brainstorming conversation, which would be a lot better if it was divided in a solitary work period followed by a cumulative peer based review in person; and when there's a imperative need to switch directions ASAP, which will hinder productivity anyways however you look at it. Of course your millage may vary and I'm not trying to convince you your're wrong, specially because you aren't since this is a a topic very influences by personal preference. I just find that every instance where the telephone could outdo an email, is because either the parties involved where not properly prepared with the required resources in their possession, or because the type of communication was not meant to be written in the first place. Generally this last type works better in person. Almost always.