Managing Your Business Email and Increasing Your Productivity

Email bankruptcy is becoming a reality in today's business world. One example is Lawrence Lessig an internet entrepreneur who lost control of his email account due to the number of genuine business emails. Another account is from the Washington Post.

While this seems extreme action, and it is, it does not alleviate the issue because there has been no learning pattern, and when the email load bulks up again deleting the entire inbox will not fix the problem. In fact this begins to reflect dysfunctional behaviour.

Electronic communications have grown rapidly in the past 15 years or so. If you are interested in the development history of email, then see this Article.

It was following development by Internet companies around 1993 that we began to see the emergence of email in business applications. In Australia, managers had access to email while it was considered too high end to allow lower level employees access. Today, in most jobs, an email account is part of the job. However, it is the tool that delivers work, but it is not in itself the work.

So electronic communications such as email are constantly being updated - Microsoft Outlook 2003 is outdated and most companies have rolled over to 2007. But what about the user - Are we being updated with techniques?.

Over 60% of todays business communications are handled via email. Continuous surveys by WallCann advise that over 80% of email users are suffering difficulties in effectively managing their email communications. Of that number, the great majority of users are self taught - How hard can it be? Very hard for most.

So where does one turn for advice? The IT Department, Right?

You would think that this is the logical solution - Sadly the majority of business's agree. The IT Department is generally the last place that should be delivering Best Practice Email training - Sound odd? Let me reassure you that it is not - The IT people deliver functional training - to do this press that key etc. They also commonly do not talk in the same language as the sales or finance department creating communication barriers.

Companies need to have a facilitative approach to delivering learning that impacts upon individuals behaviour, breaking bad and self taught unproductive work habits and reinstating new.

Like driving a car, email users need to know what the road rules are and how to use them for maximum safety while travelling in an efficient and timely manner.

While first day learner drivers know what pedal makes the vehicle go and which one makes it stop - you would'nt lend a learner the keys to your new BMW without being confident that they understand all the road rules and have had sufficient driving practice to complete the journey with your BMW (and them) unscathed.

Yet this is what most companies do when it comes to their major communications tool. The immediate response is - If it's to do with computers it belongs in IT.

An insane idea when you really think about it - It doesn't have anything to do with computers at all - the computer is just the medium. It actually has to do with your clients - they are the ones that receive your employee's emails. It has to do with your internal staff, as more and more, email is used as the largest internal communication device. It has to do with suppliers and all of your stake holders.

So with this in mind, why would you leave the It Department in control? Should the IT department also be responsible for Accounts as this is managed by computer applications - Or Marketing which relies on the IT infrastructure to work.

I hope that putting it in this context changes your thoughts relating to where communications productivity should belong. If you have a Learning and Development department - this is where it should sit - or possibly with HR. A large corporate should actually have a team responsible for this function. And not just email, but Instant Messaging, Forums and Bulletin boards as well.

Checking for Email Bankruptcy is a simple matter. While the term means differing things for different people, it relates to the number of genuine business emails you receive that you can cope with while still managing your core business.

Regardless of the email platform your company uses, look at how many emails are currently in you Inbox. More than 10 when you leave work at the end of the day then you are a suspect.

How many emails are in your Sent Mail box? Again more than 10 puts you in to the suspect arena.

You are probably thinking that the above questions and statements are not in your particular business reality. Again you would be wrong. This is what the WallCann Academy teaches business professionals.

Run the check again and think about what your Inbox and Sent Mail box is actually holding. Vital information right? Right! But by working to Best Practice then you begin to understand what the Inbox clutter really represents - Your TIME!

And if your time is valuable, then you need to think about changing your behaviour.

Turning on the Green Lights. The ability to unlearn and relearn requires dedication. This is change behaviour learning at it's best.

Let me put this another way - "You don't know what you don't know". A simple phrase, but a powerful one. Often I talk with HR and L & D Managers who tell me that they have 500 + emails in each of their Inbox and Sent Mail boxes, yet they do not think this dysfunctional. Why? Because they have always worked this way.

When they attend a seminar it is like turning on the green light as they leave with glowing eye's as now they discover what they didn't know.

One example is the SA HR Manager of an extremely large Australian business (in the top ten) who gave up her Saturday and went to her office to put our learning into practice. The end result - She now has an additional hour a day to devote to core business.

Like all learning, you need to have the information to act upon and the want to begin changing your current communications habits.

WallCann supply online seminars globally, however this is currently on a subscriber basis for our international clients.

If this is of interest to your organisation, please email me at markm@wallcann.com with your requirements and I will respond personally.

In the meantime, you can begin preparing for a more productive work life by working through the eBook downloadable from The WallCann Academy

For Outlook 2007 Users

For Outlook 2003 Users

If you work from a different email platform, please let me know at markm@wallcann.com and I will respond with our range of email platform offerings.