John Caparella had a simple rule: come talk to me. If you can’t, call me.
That rule came quickly in John’s tenure as he saw in email inbox fill daily with over 200 new notes. Every day. Saturdays and Sundays included. Most were of the FYI variety. A good chunk were CYA. A lot more were just diatribes that would have been unnecessary with a five minute phone call.
John’s organization had an ugly little addiction to email and text messages.
To make matters worse, many of those emails were poorly toned and created unnecessary workplace conflicts and misunderstandings.
Shortly after starting to work with John, he began responding to his emails with a single line response to either call him or make an appointment to talk about it. He also made it very clear to his senior team that his preferred method of communication was face-to-face. It has the highest information richness and the lowest chance of misunderstanding.
The email volume went down quickly for John. More people came to talk to him and more called to see if he could talk. Communication actually occurred in a bi-directional and immediate basis, the way it should. Relationships were strengthened, trust grew and his senior team became accustomed to talking and not writing.
But that is not the end of the story. Not close.
John’s line in the sand about email caused a huge trickle down affect in the entire organization. Less email enterprise wide. More real communication and human interaction which in turn, created higher team member engagement and overall performance. A very large victory all around.
Effective leaders will always look at communication richness and err on the side of true human interaction above writing emails. It may have convenience but that is about it.
To work on talking more and writing less, begin to:
- Use John’s one liner to call you or schedule a time to talk.
- Encourage your team to avoid sending emails and to achieve true communication.
- Build trust and eliminate the need for CYA and documenting emails.