Knowing where you're likely to run into trouble is often the only knowledge you need to avoid it. For example, wandering about your residence in the middle of the night in the dark isn't dangerous if you know the layout well, and if you know where you're likely to trip over something. And even a little bit of light helps a lot.
So it is with communicating by email or text message. This post and the next describe a few of the traps most likely to lead to trouble in these text-based communication media. Here are two of them.- Rushing to send
- If urgency requires that a message be composed and sent quickly, trading away accuracy for speed is a bad trade. Sending the wrong message quickly doesn't get the job done. I'm not thinking here about typographical errors alone, though they are indeed problematic. Typing "2 PM" when you meant "1 PM" can create a real mess.
- But by any If urgency requires that a message be
composed and sent quickly, trading away
accuracy for speed is a bad trademeasure the more serious problems cause lasting damage to relationships. Omitting someone from the "To" list is an example of a minor slip that can have major consequences for relationships. - Following is a procedure for composing the message you actually meant to compose. Note that in some circumstances, it contains a loop from Step 5 back to Step 2.
- Write what you meant to write. Of course, you might make mistakes, but we'll get to that next.
- Read it after you write it. Make corrections if necessary.
- Let some time pass or do something else to freshen your brain. Two minutes is enough, but take more time if the message is really important.
- Read the message again. If you find something you want to change, change it.
- If you made no changes in Step 2 or Step 4, go to Step 6. If you changed anything in Step 2 or Step 4, set the message aside for a few minutes and do something else to refresh your brain. Then go to Step 2 and resume.
- If you get to this point and you feel good about the message, send it.
- This process might seem at first to be too cumbersome for urgent messages. But it's way faster than cleaning up the mess that a wrong message can create.
- Using relative dates or times
- Don't rely on relative indications of dates or times — terms such as today, tomorrow, yesterday, this afternoon, soon, after the staff meeting, and so on. The problem with relative dates and times is that they're subject to misunderstanding when you read the message at some point in the future. In the future, the message is a historical artifact. At that point, the reader is likely researching the history of something. And the reader might not immediately know the ending time of the staff meeting, or what "tomorrow" was when the message was written. Compare these two: "Tomorrow (Wednesday 3 March 1600 Eastern)" and "Tomorrow right after the staff meeting."
- Confusion can arise in other ways, too, when dates and times are stated in relative terms. For example, when communicating with people who are several time zones distant, the term "tomorrow" can have multiple meanings. Citing times in specific time zones is usually safe, but you can make the practice even safer by citing times by city rather than time zone. Using a time zone can be a source of risk around the biennial switches to or from summer time. Citing time by city can be safer if everyone knows the time in, say, New York or Bangalore.
Last words
Next time, I'll explore four more traps we might encounter when composing email or text messages. Next in this series Top Next IssueAre you so buried in email that you don't even have time to delete your spam? Do you miss important messages? So many of the problems we have with email are actually within our power to solve, if we just realize the consequences of our own actions. Read 101 Tips for Writing and Managing Email to learn how to make peace with your inbox. Order Now!
And if you have organizational responsibility, you can help transform the culture to make more effective use of email. You can reduce volume while you make content more valuable. You can discourage email flame wars and that blizzard of useless if well-intended messages from colleagues and subordinates. Read Where There's Smoke There's Email to learn how to make email more productive at the organizational scale — and less dangerous. Order Now!
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Related articles
More articles on Effective Communication at Work:
- Twelve Tips for More Masterful Virtual Presentations: II
- Virtual presentations are unlike face-to-face presentations, because in the virtual environment, we're
competing for audience attention against unanticipated distractions. Here's Part II of a collection
of tips for masterful virtual presentations.
- That Was a Yes-or-No Question: I
- In tense situations, one person might question another. As the respondent replies, the questioner interjects,
"That was a yes-or-no question." The intent is to trap the respondent. How does this work,
and how can the respondent escape the trap?
- Why Dogs Make the Best Teammates
- Dogs make great teammates. It's in their constitutions. We can learn a lot from dogs about being good
teammates.
- Interrupting Others in Meetings Safely: II
- When we feel the need to interrupt someone who's speaking in a meeting, to offer a view or information,
we would do well to consider (and mitigate) the risk of giving offense. Here are some techniques for
interrupting the speaker in situations not addressed by the meeting's formal process.
- The Big Power of Little Words
- Big, fancy words, like commensurate or obfuscation, tend to be more noticed than the
little everyday words, like yet or best. That might be why the little words can be
so much more powerful, steering conversations where their users want them to go.
See also Effective Communication at Work and Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness for more related articles.
Forthcoming issues of Point Lookout
- Coming May 8: Antipatterns for Time-Constrained Communication: 3
- Recognizing just a few patterns that can lead to miscommunication can reduce the incidence of problems. Here is Part 3 of a collection of antipatterns that arise in technical communication under time pressure, emphasizing past experiences of participants. Available here and by RSS on May 8.
- And on May 15: Should I Write or Should I Call?
- After we recognize the need to contact a colleague or colleagues to work out a way to move forward, we next must decide how to make contact. Phone? Videoconference? Text message? There are some simple criteria that can help with such decisions. Available here and by RSS on May 15.
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