In todays digital world a high volume of communication is conducted through some form of digital messaging.  From e-mail, text messaging to video conferences we are bombarded with communication.

While I don’t pine for the days of paper documents and snail mail, the high volume of digital communications  resulting from the ease of transmission impacts the quality of responses.

Often, it is apparent from the response the message was only skimmed.  The recipients, many forging through hundreds of email messages each day, regulary reply without correctly addressing the question or issued raised.

On a number of occassions I am convinced the response, although in good faith, was based on very quick assumptions.  Bypassing the detail in the original communication, for reason of haste and efficiency just result in more digital messages.

A sense of Urgency

Snail mail and related communication forms typically do not have the same percieved urgency associated with them because the time to deliver and return the message is varible ( that is the transit time).

Expectations for speedy postal mail reponses, or even internal paper mail are not the same as that for email or instant messaging where it is possible to get almost instaneous response.

Volume and Percieved Urgency Impacts

The high volume resulting from the ease of crafting and despatching messages coupled with the unreasonable expections for speedy response (because it is possible) cause confusion, frustration and rework.

This is compounded by a real pet peeve of mine, multiple simultanous conversations.  These are initiated by the fact adding numerous recipeints to messages is easy and often every recipient has something to say and says it, writing in parallel.

 And the solution

Hold your finger off the keyboard.  If a digital communication needs more than an acknowledgement, it most likely requires a conversation, i.e., talking face to face, and should be treated as such.

I practice this rule of thumb personally and it works like a charm.  As a result my volume of digital communications is low and rework resulting from misunderstandings rarely occurs.

Give it a try.  Practice giving up email reponses for a week.  If a response is neede communicate to the other party directly.  I believe you will be pleasantly surprised with the results.