Is E-mail a Broken Business Communication Tool?
When you start seeing articles on “declaring e-mail bankruptcy”, you know that something has gone horribly wrong with e-mail as a business communication tool.
My colleague Jason Preston has been arguing that e-mail is a broken system for quite some time now. I’m starting to agree with him. I have a number of e-mails in my inbox that I never quite get around to replying to. That’s not to say that I’m not paying attention. I do try to stay on top of all the projects I’m involved with.
My personal e-mail? Don’t even go there. It’s mostly a repository of e-mails from my parents, reminders from wordpress@somedomain.com that I need to check the moderation queue, and the occasional spam.
The only time I use e-mail in my personal life is to organize communication among a large group of people. And even then, if they’re all on Facebook, I tend to use that instead.
But what’s the equivalent communication tool for business? If you want to be public, blogs and comments are a nice way to talk to one another. But what if you want to have a private conversation with your co-worker?
I’m a big fan of instant messaging because it’s — well — instant. It insists on getting your attention immediately and it won’t give up and go away like e-mail does. It also breaks information down into little easily read chunks.
The problem with instant messenger is that not everyone uses the same protocol. And even when they do, some people are more reliable about logging on than others. My boss, Steve tends to hate instant messaging. He says it’s the, “worst of e-mail combined with the worst of the phone.”
Obviously, an internal project blog is a great solution to keep teams in contact with one another. But there’s always going to be someone who doesn’t have access. E-mail — flawed as it is — is the widely accepted standard for communicating one-on-one in business. People are used to it. And in business, it’s hard to get people to do anything but what they’re used to.
I’m curious. What are your biggest peeves about e-mail. Have you discovered any unique, brilliant ways to circumvent them? Do you and your coworkers have some magical system for communicating with one another? Please to share.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I think that email is a sympton of a general break down in communication - we are getting more and more technology available to us to “improve” communication, but it is generating an information overload situation. So, we are starting to ignore incoming communications entirely.
[...] Valdez Klein recent wrote “Is eMail a Broken Business Communication Tool?” Teresa argues the lack of organization inherent in eMail systems makes communicating with large [...]
[...] Valdez Klein recent wrote “Is eMail a Broken Business Communication Tool?” Teresa argues the lack of organization inherent in eMail systems makes communicating with large [...]
[...] Valdez Klein recent wrote “Is eMail a Broken Business Communication Tool?” Teresa argues the lack of organization inherent in eMail systems makes communicating with large [...]
I agree with you that the email system is semi broken. Although it is still better than sending mail, it tends to be easier for people to ignore. How many junk mail do you normally receive everyday? It discourages people from checking their emails daily because of unnecessary junk. I actually believe texting is the new generation of communication. However, many are still trying to adapt to that new system.
In some cases, I was able to tell a message to someone in person before he/she even checked their email.
The email system has its advantages, but how often do you receive a reply from them? Talking on the phone and texting is the way to go.
- Johnny La
Email system stores most of the company non-structure and non-process data. I think a good enterprises blog system plus a IM system could replace internal email communication system.
For external, email is still the one…
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