Email became the prime business communications tool starting in the nineteen nineties, overtaking snail mail which was the prime source to that point.

Today, with all its warts and even with the advent of a variety of messaging tools (SMS, Twitter, Linked In) email still remains firmly entrenched as the easy communication tool of choice.

Submit and Hope

While email is a far more efficient tool when compared to written or typed documents sent by hand, internal or external mail services (and occasionally courier) this ease of delivery and tracking has some drawbacks.

Many now use email as a passive messaging method.  Issues and concerns are often disseminated to multiple parties at the push of a button.

The receipt can be tracked/proven electronically and so the sender is able to say “I told you so” in defense if an untoward event occurs and the those who should have known about it and reacted accordingly did not.

It’s not my fault, I sent you an email about it.

Information Overload

Sadly, the ease of writing and sending emails creates a massive overflow of electronic communications, such that many recipients are often overwhelmed and just cannot get through them all.

Just personal observation, in the days before emails, daily correspondence going through a small ten-person office was likely a tenth of what it is today with email.

Given this context, for really important messages I strongly recommend direct contact with immediate feedback.  Sure follow up with an email if you wish but don’t rely on it.

You may be able to massage your own guilt using the email technique, (i.e., I told you via email) but it does not address the real issue, communication that gets the results needed.  Actually solving the problems before they occur.