Chapped

We have all been there before whether we've had to participate in a lengthy meeting sitting at a conference table, sitting in a vehicle on a long trip, or for some individuals sitting on an uncomfortable bike seat for hour after hour of training. Today was a long training day on the bike. The first of many and it led me to think about all the long commutes and long meetings spent sitting down.

Early in my professional career I used to look forward to a long power meeting. Participating in a group and listening to the group-think dynamic take over to result in progress felt invigorating. However, as my career and technology progressed the power meeting has almost become a thing of the past. E-mail has dominated the workplace and in some cases has replaced face-to-face meetings. In some regards this led to efficiencies, but lately "company culture" has lost sight of the amount of time it takes to manage e-mails.

Reading and responding to e-mail in itself is almost a full time commitment. However, this may be due to the amount of time it takes to respond to individual questions that spawn a lengthy e-mail train versus meeting in a group for a short time to answer questions in an open forum. Even phone calls can eliminate unnecessary followup e-mails. As technology advances to create more methods to communicate electronically, companies should be aware of the costs to manage electronic communication. There are three cost components such as users of e-mail, IT staff to manage the electronic system, and the network e-mail resides on.

E-mail is here to stay and I'm a user. However, the next time you are leaving the office for the day and want to crank out 10 or 15 e-mails knowing that no one is on the other end remember that someone needs to process and respond to your question. If it is truly necessary, send it out. But if you are sending it out to push the project to someone else, hit delete and pick up the phone in the morning. You'll be much further ahead and you'll make someone's morning by not having to read through 50+ messages that showed up after they left the night before.

I'll keep training, you keep reading!