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People are notorious for not reading or responding to email. Even business email, about topics vital to their job. If a reply is needed, they'll address either
by JoeAltmaier 2y ago
People are notorious for not reading or responding to email. Even business email, about topics vital to their job.
If a reply is needed, they'll address either the first or last point raised. Never, ever all the points. Never completely.
No wonder people tend to call so many meetings. They can corner colleagues, get a complete, coherent response to complex issues.
I wonder if Slack is any better? Do folks respond better to one question at a time?
- 0xmutt 2y agoWith regards to Slack or other asynchronous communication methods, its generally a mixed bag in my experience. Folks still tend to target some and not all of the points. Which then leads to more follow-ups. I wonder if this has to do with other interruptions on Slack (or other mediums) occurring at the same time. Pretty common to be responding to something only to be interrupted by something else that pulls your attention away.
- Bluestein 2y ago(It really really might come down to people not addressing all points due to carelessness, -and- it being easier to "compete" (corral?) attention, when in a meeting.-
- 0xmutt 2y agoEntirely possible! I would not be surprised if that is the case. That seems most likely when you boil down the context of the (likely) situation.
- nottorp 2y agoIt's sync vs async. Slack won't help if you let it spam you with notifications for every OH SO URGENT message. Make a habit to ignore it and batch answer now and then, between tasks not during tasks. Then teach everyone else in the org to do the same if they don't get the hint.
- 0xmutt 2y agoAgree heavily. Async mediums that interrupt like Slack with all the notifications stink. Having good habits around notification and interruption management is important. As is making sure everyone understands and operates within the same mindset.
- ska 2y agoI don’t understand the distinction you are trying for here - email is also async.
- 0xmutt 2y agoCorrect, email is also async. I was mainly providing my experience with respect to Slack or other async communication methods. I could have been clearer.
- Bluestein 2y agoIndeed. The oft said "this meeting could have been an email" ... ... well. Sometimes, no.-
- happytoexplain 2y agoIn my experience, the same is true regardless of medium. For that reason, I try to always form questions clearly (one question-marked sentence in the email, at the end if possible - no repeating the question in different words or dithering), and I give only one question. I write the rest down, but only deliver each after the previous has been answered. If I ask you more than one question at a time, or give you the freedom to respond outside the framework of a question-answer pair, it means I respect your ability to communicate.
- amelius 2y ago"Hi, this is ChatGPT, and I noticed that in this reply you did not address all the points raised by the sender of the email."
- eddd-ddde 2y agoOh yes please, I honestly might make this a thing just for fun. A cloudflare email agent that intercepts emails and scolds the sender if they don't give meaningful responses.
- nottorp 2y ago> If a reply is needed, they'll address either the first or last point raised. Never, ever all the points. Never completely. Use numbered short topics instead of a wall of text, even if they're all in the same email. It usually gets me a lot more answers than something more prose like. > I wonder if Slack is any better? Do folks respond better to one question at a time? Post numbered short topics :)
- heurist 2y agoReally depends on who is responding. Emails that require a lot of effort to respond to are less likely to get a response in general, I've found.
- nottorp 2y agoPrying the answers you need out of your co workers and customers is a skill. I hate it but someone has to do it so it might as well be me. Repeat the unanswered questions, add helper questions etc. I've discovered no way to avoid it.
- ghaff 2y agoAs a writer I sort of hate it, but bullets--often in a slide format--tend to make more sense in a business setting. And, yes, shorter is generally better.
- safety1st 2y agoIt's also valuable to clarify why the information is needed. I don't really have problems getting information from somebody when I email them and the email starts with "We are unable to proceed with <the thing they care about> until we have answers to these questions: <numbered list here>" As someone who both sends and receives a lot of business email and who is very busy, frankly if your email isn't structured like this, or it's written as a long rambling essay or something, 99% of the time you shouldn't send it
- croutonwagon 2y agoGenerally long emails are hard to process. And most are multi-tasking when an email comes in. Even now I will often type a bunch of stuff and if the reply is longer than a paragraph, or needs multiple replies/input i will just ask for a 10 minute call. And even today when this was done, We addressed the context of the email and I helped with 3 other things that werent on topic in 10 minutes. So it was a better use of time (and I do acknowledge plenty of meetings are totally useless, even ones I have called...)
- Dalewyn 2y ago>People are notorious for not reading or responding to email. People are notorious for not reading, period. RTFM, et al. exist for a reason.