“Ways to reduce emails at work” on People HR, August 21, 2019
Not all workplace discussions should be held over email
Many of us rely on email for almost all workplace conversations. But Alan Zucker, founder of Project Management Essentials, says that for some types of communication, email is a terrible format. And we can actually reduce emails at work by moving some of these conversations elsewhere.
“Email is good when you want to communicate broadly” says Zucker “which means that the content does not need a lot of discussion. Complex ideas or discussions, however, are not effectively communicated by email. Those discussions should take place face-to-face, or through an interactive platform.”
Zucker agrees that fewer emails per day is a good thing. But he warns against the dangers of packing more complex discussions, into fewer emails.
“Packing multiple, disparate topics into a single email will be ineffective” he continues. “People are more effective when they break complex problems into smaller, more manageable tasks. Experience shows that teams that decompose their work into tasks that can be delivered quickly, are more productive.”