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The Times to Abandon Email
By Bob McGannon, PMP
As busy project managers manage their precious personal and project schedules, they look for any means to save time and money. The need to do this is amplified by the economic conditions present today. A tempting target for time and cost reduction activities is the communication tasks that are a major part of the successful project manager’s responsibility. We are tempted to try and save time and money by foregoing face to face meetings, or the organisation of conference calls, opting instead to sending emails as they are quick and cheap. Don’t do it! Emails are fraught with danger, and lurking costs due to miscommunication, potential misunderstanding and a lack of personal understanding that can accompany the “email cost savings”. Here are suggestions for guidelines as to when NOT to use email.
1) Engaging in debates, deriving new solutions or settling complaints
The agenda for your meeting or your objective should be a primary consideration for when to use email (or any other medium, for that matter). You are simply not going to be successful at achieving your objectives when you use a “low touch” tool when you need a highly interactive process to achieve your objective.
2) Changing tasks or assigning new tasks to a team member
Team members can have significant questions about the nature of the project, its status and the relationships between their work and the work of other team members when new tasks are introduced. Confirming an assignment via email is a viable alternative – but when assigning tasks an interactive discussion needs to take place to ensure valuable time and money aren’t spent producing a deliverable that is different from what is required. In addition to this, the value and productivity of a team member can be enhanced if they feel more integrated into the team and fully understand the significance of their deliverable to the project and the sponsoring business. Only a richer communication maximises the probability of this enhanced value.
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