That’s not what I meant! – Technology and miscommunication

We may have moved beyond typewriters and carbon copies, but our new world of communication technology allows us to mess up communication in lots of new ways.

When I remember one recent e-mail mishap, I still want to slap my forehead. A colleague was preparing a report for NAFCU’s board of directors. I emailed him to see when I could expect it. Unfortunately, I “fat-fingered” my iPhone and ended the sentence with an exclamation point instead of a question mark.

“When will I see it?” became the terse “When will I see it!”

His reply seemed strange to me – until I saw what I had done. I was able to clear things up, but I’m sure Greg wasted 15 minutes wondering what I meant by my tone.

I’m not alone in the practice of sending cryptic emails. A recent article from The Wall Street Journal relates this incident:

“Jill Campen was baffled recently when her boss Marty Finkle fired back a one-word reply to her carefully thought-out email asking for his approval on a client-training presentation she had prepared: ‘Done!’ Ms. Campen, a consultant at Scotwork North America in Parsippany, N.J., puzzled over the message for a half-hour, then decided she was too upset to resolve the matter by email. She called Mr. Finkle and asked, ‘What is going on with you? ‘Done?’ What does that mean?’

“Mr. Finkle, chief executive officer of Scotwork North America, a negotiating-skills training and consulting company, was dismayed. He told Ms. Campen that he trusts her to do a good job and went on to explain that he had been rushing to answer a client’s email and empty his in-box of the 100 to 150 emails he receives daily. When her message popped up, his first thought was, ‘We’ve already talked about this. I could get rid of this really quickly.’ By the end of the conversation, the two were laughing.”

She wasted half an hour before resolving the issue with a phone call. That isn’t uncommon. How many of you have had a day or good mood ruined by an email – only to find out you misunderstood the sender’s intent?

Here’s the problem: the pace of email is only getting worse.

The number of emails sent or received daily by the typical corporate employee is expected to rise from 121 this year to 136 by 2017, based on projections released last November by the Radicati Group, a Palo Alto, Calif., market-research firm. Managers, who receive the most, are “flooded by email,” says Nancy Ancowitz, a New York business communications coach. Many a manager multitasks to get through it all, “emailing from a mobile device at a stoplight, typing with his thumbs,” Ms. Ancowitz says.

I’ll end with these thoughts:

• There are no simple, throw-away emails. Each one counts – even those one-word replies.
• If you lead a team or organization, people will read into everything you do. Body language, tone, facial expression, and eye-contact. But email strips you of everything except the written word. Can the words you are writing be taken the wrong way? If so, slow down and edit the email.
• Putting even more of your time into sending emails may not sound enticing. But as a leader, your emails can affect your entire organization. The thirty seconds you may save firing off a quick email could lead to hours or days of confusion. The cost/benefit analysis indicates that sending thoughtful, clear emails will be more efficient over time.

Even punctuation counts when it comes to expressing yourself clearly. Take the time to proofread, and save yourself a lot of trouble in the long run!