E-Mail

E-MailPeter Gowers2015

Pete GowersRelatively new to Ford, 20 yrs 1 month Engineering degree and Ford MBATypical IT career, PD, Finance, PD, M&S, Credit, Credit dealer IT, PD, FCSD (SEO)6 years on stress groups, counselling courses, 9 years presenting positive psychology, charity listening volunteer and mentor1*wife, 3*cats, 1*2.9 year old (Josh)6.15 AM gym classes punching to dance music

Simplified summary of the problemhttps://www.youtube.com/embed/8NPzLBSBzPI

EmailSo many people tell us email is THE problemIf you want others to change their behaviour to improve things for you, how is that working for you?You need a system, it wont get better on its own

Email RulesThink before you use "Reply to All"Answer the question: do they all really need to see this email? If not reply only to those necessary.Do not attach unnecessary files Cut & paste where sensible the information into the email. Aim to provide the message in a single screen for minimum effort on the part of the recipient. Avoid the use of colours, graphics, and backgrounds in e-mail messages. Coloured text, particularly light colours can result in e-mail that is difficult to read. Graphics and backgrounds increase the size of e-mail, and can result in slower performance when opening e-mail or synchronizing it to a laptop computer.Exercise care when sending large, multi-megabyte attachments or multiple attachments. Consider compressing attachments into a .zip file to reduce their size.Do not write in CAPITALS. IF YOU WRITE IN CAPITALS IT SEEMS AS IF YOU ARE SHOUTING. This can be highly annoying and might trigger an unwanted response.Avoid over using URGENT and IMPORTANT. If you overuse the high priority option, it will lose its function when you really need it.Watch out for viruses in attached files. Attached files are a common way to spread computer viruses.Use the cc: field sparingly. Try not to use the cc: field unless the recipient in the cc: field knows why they are receiving a copy of the message.Do not include personal statements or catchy phrases in a signature file. Others may consider these to be offensive. Only include relevant business information in signatures including job function, phone number, pager number, etc. Read the email before you send it. A lot of people don't bother to read the email before they send it, as can be seen from the many spelling and grammar mistakes. Apart from this, reading your email through the eyes of the recipient will help you send a more effective message.

More Email RulesDon't send it if you wouldn't say it.Use fonts, font sizes colours and backgrounds that are legible and easy to read.Do not use special stationary formats.Be careful when typing in capital letters, AS ALL-CAPITALIZED WORDS AND SENTENCES IN E-MAILS ARE OFTEN INTERPRETED AS YELLING.Keep e-mails constructive in substance and professional in tone.Never send e-mail when angry. Instead, type it, then save it to a folder. After you are calm, reread and edit it, then send.Do not send emails which only consist of a "Thank you" as this will add to email traffic unnecessarily.State the topic clearly and concisely in the note subject line.Summarise the purpose of your note in the first three lines, so it's purpose can be easily evaluated in the "preview" view.Separate ideas with bullets (as you would in Word or PowerPoint) for clarity.Move those from whom no action is required to the CC: list.Spell check the e-mail by pressing the F7 key. It may be better to switch to using the telephone and talk face to face if you find that you are having a one to one dialogue in e-mails.

More Email RulesDon't send it if you wouldn't say it.Use fonts, font sizes colours and backgrounds that are legible and easy to read.Do not use special stationary formats.Be careful when typing in capital letters, AS ALL-CAPITALIZED WORDS AND SENTENCES IN E-MAILS ARE OFTEN INTERPRETED AS YELLING.Keep e-mails constructive in substance and professional in tone.Never send e-mail when angry. Instead, type it, then save it to a folder. After you are calm, reread and edit it, then send.Do not send emails which only consist of a "Thank you" as this will add to email traffic unnecessarily.State the topic clearly and concisely in the note subject line.Summarise the purpose of your note in the first three lines, so it's purpose can be easily evaluated in the "preview" view.Separate ideas with bullets (as you would in Word or PowerPoint) for clarity.Move those from whom no action is required to the CC: list.Spell check the e-mail by pressing the F7 key. It may be better to switch to using the telephone and talk face to face if you find that you are having a one to one dialogue in e-mails. RUBBISH

Why are Such Guidelines so Bad?Simplistic Ignores us. PeopleCan be wrong ResearchThey don't workThey don't work

Goals for TodayThink About E-mailNo pressure, no rules, its your inboxResearch ProjectPersonal and organisational productivityInterruptionThe use of e-mail compared to other communication toolsTraining and educationOrganisational ownership and cultural factorsSome of what I didSome of what I foundShare what works for meAt some level I am hoping this helpsNote: there are alternatives to this.

E-mail Research ProjectLiterature ReviewInterviews6 Sigma stuff - Data

LiteratureWhy? E-mail has become the most important method used in the workplace to agree activity with colleagues, customers and clients, yet the vast majority of organisations are failing to address the role of inbox management in staff productivity (Kubicek 2003)

Focus on Productivity A focused manager to them is not in reactive mode, but instead limited to a few key projects and managing their own time to avoid being sidetracked. they have a clear understanding of what they want to accomplish, they carefully weigh their options before selecting a course of action. (Bruch and Ghoshal 2002)

Studies watching email The speed of reaction observed was remarkable:70% within six seconds of their arrival and 85% within two minutes of arrival (Jackson, Dawson and Wilson 2003a).

Cultural Stuff There are two words that are particularly useful when dealing with business requests. One is yes and the other is no. Both of these words are now in danger, particularly the second one. They have been supplanted by a third response: Nothing. Every day at work we all receive dozens of questions by e-mail and voice-mail that need a reply. (Kellaway 2002) (Seeley and Hargreaves 2003 p76).

Interviews15 people studied in depth Interviewed, recorded typed up5 Analysts5 Supervisors5 Middle and upper managers

Categories As per research goalsPersonal ProductivityOrganisational productivityInterruptionUse of e-mail compared to other communication toolsTraining and EducationOwnership and cultural factors

Interview QuestionsSample QuestionsTalk me through an ordinary dayDo you find interruption by e-mail to be a problem? Do you manage to spend appropriate time on longer tasks? What do you see as the strengths of e-mail usage in Ford? where working really wellWhat do you see as the weaknesses of e-mail usage in Ford? - dysfunctionalDo your e-mails that you send tend to get replied to in the amount of time that would like? Trying to get a feel for your expectations when you send an e-mail? is it ok to ignore an e-mailDo you meet the expectations of people sending e-mails to you? How do you feel about e-mail?how do you feel about alerts

Efficiency?

Emotionally Engaged

Behavioural

Expectations

Covey

Covey with Email

Positives about E-mailBalance of communication ok for mostMass CommunicationManagement communication also by e-mail is valued and done on the whole quite well No pull system would achieve the same potential; people just never read websites in the volume that they read an e-mail messageGetting thinking straight firstA documented task you can prioritise, delegate, share.Sheer volume of information sharingPersonal Knowledge managementUse for asynchronous communicationE-mails biggest strength, especially in a company with a lot of meetings, geographical and language diversity is that it works as an asynchronous toolTasks that are non urgent can be communicated and performed at a time that is convenient to both sender and receiverSynchronous DANGER

6 Sigma stuffReplication of a greenbelt TM The Genius that is - Paul WilliamsYou can copy Outlook Meta Data to ExcelDump a months email in excel and analyseHighly recommend the processAll the work is done for youRe-use of greenbelt toolsIt can be illuminatingYou can make sure any emails you generally dont want you dont receive. No-one else can decide that for you as well remember they chose to send you that email

Person 1 Person 2

Data can tell you new stuff. Dont tell anyone I admitted to that

Key FindingsUse Other tools for prioritisation. E.g. paper, excel, outlook tasks.An inbox doesn't facilitate either an assessment of priority or importance'Cc's' and use of reply-all Reality GAP - 'cc'd' mail made up only 10% of communications, with mailing lists a further 10%. With simple rules, users can learn to process these messages only once in a few seconds and move onDon't Measure success by your inboxIt's ok to like e-mail, it's ok to prefer it, but it's important that things are a choice and not a habitAt the deepest levels, even an outlook junkie would admit, were not here to answer emailTalking about communication should be encouraged for team meetingsAlign expectations of senders and receiversThis is not unique to e-mail, it's a workload issue, but highlighted predominantly through e-mail. E-mail is used to delegate tasks, but if everyone believes they cannot process everything they receive: There has to be a mechanism for setting expectations better.Reduce Interruption Scuppers productivity.Switch off alerts if you can, but can use rules for high priority mails or crisis notes etc.There are some mails that are clearly low urgency and dont need to interrupt the recipient. View Options Deliver after.

What works for Me? YMMVFilter CC mail read once and file.File only by date. Advanced search/New Outlook 2010 search makes messages easy to find and PSTs stay under control.New PST every 6 months.Dont delete or file anything by subject.Takes time I dont have.Aim to process once move to an action folder if work needed.Do (action), delegate or dump (to cc folder)Batch if at all possible. Evidence is its more efficient. Recovery time for a distraction 2 minutes min.Try to use task lists outside of outlook.Nothing is perfect I dont profess to having all the answers.This helps, but I still have a lot coming at me, and can miss things.Space is never an issue now for meit is critical that you develop an information triage strategy.Information triage: A means to easily and quickly identify, prioritize, and categorize incoming information in every situation to develop competitive advantage.(Groff and Jones 2003 Chapter 3: Capture and Corroborate)

What works for me? YMMV

New Outlook 2010 searchPost Advanced find

Outlook Search The Killer appThink what the key things about the email are: When it was sentWho it was fromWhat the title wasWho it was sent to Whether it has attachmentsThen construct a query to type in the search box and click try searching again in all mail folders

More SearchExamples could be:Sent:thisweekSent:thismonthSent:lastmonthSent:thisyear (this one is handy to stop too much searching).Subject:workshop (searches for words in the subject)Hasattachments:yes To:Warren (use the unique part of someones address to find quickly, often you may find you know a recipient and it helps narrow quickly CDSID works)From:Gowers (good way to search your sent items)Content:stress (content in a message, think of the least common word you think may be in there).

Just chain them together with spaces to find stuff.

http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/searchcommands.htm

Outlook Keystrokes Some I useRead next emailCtrl->Read previous emailCtrl-