Q – I recently saw a great article about No Email Fridays! What do you think?
A – It’s a band-aid! Guess what, the email usage spiked on Thursdays and again on Mondays!
Background – a local CEO was frustrated that his employees were emailing each other, cc’ing 15 people on the most minuet points (sound familiar?) more often than they were talking or meeting live! As such, he instituted a “No Email Fridays” policy where people were literally not allowed to send emails to each other on Fridays. Here is why I think it’s shortsighted and a band-aid.
- Intent – Robert Putnam’s best selling book, Bowling Alone does a great job of reiterating the point that we’re loosing our ability to touch people! We’re becoming increasingly disconnected and there is a dramatic erosion in our sense of community. That’s true in our neighborhoods as it is in our offices. Email in particular has become so prevalent in our lives that we seem to not be able to live without it – I get 175+/day, and that’s after 4 spam filters.
- The Problem – telling people not to send emails on Fridays is like me telling my kids don’t eat ice cream at nights! As I mentioned above, the email usage actually spiked on Thursday afternoons and resumed on Mondays!! The cause in this case is not the email – it’s simply a tool to further manifest the problem. The problem is either the lack of willingness or ability (both culturally driven) to communicate. Most people cc’ 15 people on any given email to cover their behinds! Most people don’t start their emails with “No Reply Necessary” or “Reply to Sender Only Please”.
- The Solution – only a change in behavior will create a lasting impact in the culture and in the business overall. Create an environment conducive to collaboration and communication – that could be as simple as smaller, less formal meeting spaces, entire wall of dry erase whiteboards, and keeping the organization as lean and as flat as possible. If you see various functional, geographic or project teams building silos, work on bridging them. Rotate people and their job functions / realm of responsibility, constantly assess the alignment of the talent you have with the needs of the business. And for crying out loud, please inspire people by what you do vs. what you say. Rule #1 – Always error on the side of calling people vs. emailing them. If an email can’t be sent without having to be scrolled, see rule #1. If you feel like you have to copy 15 different people, see rule #1. Get more effective & efficient with your email signature line, i.e. if you need something, end it with 411; if it’s urgent, start it with 911; if action is required – write Action Required. Combine several short, brief ideas or replies into one vs. sending multiple. Get rid of the stupid auto replies that tell people you’re on vacation – does anyone care, especially since a) the message is outdated, and b) you have a Blackberry and got the email and chose not to reply anyway.
Let’s get smart and use email as yet another tool to enable the development of our relationships not replace it! As always, I welcome your comments. David
