Wednesday, February 23, 2005

This one's for you, Red

The Tyranny of email
First, never, ever, criticize someone in email. For reasons that I have never fully grasped, any negative emotion is always amplified by communication through email. Sometimes you intend to be critical — someone has done something dumb, or said something silly, or emailed something ridiculous. Resist the urge to reply. Sometimes you don't mean to be critical, you're just making an observation, or engaging in technical debate, or adding facts to a discussion. But as soon as you sense that the recipient has taken your email as criticism, you must immediately switch media. A face-to-face meeting is best, but a phone call is also okay.

Second, don't get into prolonged technical debates in email. I've seen threads lasting weeks with a whole series of kibitzers, with everyone restating their points of view and nothing getting settled. Often email has the effect of polarizing the debate, and the combatants end up further apart in their views than when the debate began. As soon as you sense this happening, you must immediately switch media. A meeting with the core people involved is best, but a conference call is also okay.
You can download the whole manifesto in PDF form and other manifestos at Change This.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Braidwood,

It's nice to see my name not used in vain, deary! I like the email words very much. I'm glad we have used email in a successful way over the years :) It is now years, dearie!

smiles and similies to you,

Curly Red of the Irish Curly Reds

Braidwood said...

Curly Red,

I was wondering when you would read this! I'm glad you liked it.