Last week I wrote a post about reducing the reliance on email within the organization … I got quite a bit of feedback on that one and wanted to see if people out there would be interested in discussing more about what they are doing to combat the email inbox bloat that continues to happen. I figure since the post got a strong reaction and judging by some of the comments we are all beginning to notice that email is failing as a primary communications channel. As an aside I sat in a meeting yesterday morning listening to a guy talk about how he only checks his mail three times a day … WTF! “How do you get away with that,” I asked. He just said that email isn’t important and if people want an answer, “they’ll just have to call me.” Wow … I wouldn’t be able to that off … how about you?

I have also really started to think about what our array of tools should look like to support a collaboration platform that doesn’t rely solely on email. I asked the question of some friends last night that we discussed for quite some time — how long did it take us to convince each other, our bosses, family, friends, etc that email should be the way we communicate and do business? I am going to say the adoption curve for me was right around 2-3 years … now keep in mind when I got on email it was all new, shiny, and not many people knew what the hell I was talking about. But now email is the primary communication platform. What made the conversation interesting was that it pushed to the realization that it make take us 2-3 years to move an organization away from the email paradigm. It honestly stands to reason if you subscribe to the notion that culture takes three years to change.

So, long post about not much more than the original, but with a real set of questions that I would like to generate some discussion around … what should the tools be (both for an intranet and internet) to support an environment where email is minimized? What are the right kinds of strategies for making that transition happen in a compressed time frame? And finally, can we really expect to change the behavior of not only our own organizations, but other ones out there? Is email to embedded in what our organizational cultures have become? Thoughts?

Last week I was in a very interesting meeting here on campus with our new CIO, Deputy CIO, and two ITS Senior Directors to talk about blogging. Not the PSU Blog project that is really taking shape, but organizational blogging. I have been spending a lot of my time looking at how organizations can use tools like blogs, wikis, and podcasts to share information within the walls of the unit. It started several months ago with some podcasts that I listened to dealing with enabling direct internal communication within a company — you know, a President or CEO podcasting short weekly updates that people within the company could listen to understand mission, goals, changes, or whatever else. This meeting was designed to get us talking about how we could put a tool like blogs in the middle of a close to 500 person IT department to encourage and enable more authentic and active communication.

The real winner from the meeting was a comment my new CIO made that really struck me … he was talking about email and how it was used. In my own world email has become a real drag on time. I get way too much, it is filled with confusing spam messages, and really doesn’t do a great job at providing context for complex issues. He mentioned a goal that I instantly locked onto — what if we could reduce the total number of emails we send each other by 50% within three years? I was thinking that we could but it would require changing the culture of communication and putting good tools in people’s hands. I thought long and hard about and I think I have an example that I think illustrates the opportunity very well … take the process required to reach a decision on the image below:

This is a proposed poster for our TLT Symposium to be held in April. The way this poster came into existence follows a typical pattern … for this example, this is how it happens. I send an email (1) to Dave Stong, our graphic artist, explaining what I am thinking. Dave replies to me via email (2) telling me he understands what I am after and maybe to clarify a few points. I respond to him (3) to clean up a few communication issues. An hour or so later he sends me an email (4) with a link to a comp graphic for me to check out. I click the link and it opens the image in my browser for me to review and think about. I look it over, notice some things I don’t like and send him a note (5) with my thoughts and ask him to explain something to me. He responds (6) with his thoughts and sets off on creating a revised image. He sends me another note (7) that asks me to review it again with a couple more questions. I reply (8) even before looking at the comp to answer his question … I then review the second comp and send him more feedback (9). I finally get another note (10) saying he has implemented the final changes and to review it. I check it out and link it so I send him a note (11) to say it is perfect. He then replies (12) with a thank you and maybe a question about printing it, or size, or some little nuance that requires me to send a final note (13). I then send an email (14) to my Leadership Group to gain feedback and all hell breaks lose (15-30).

If he were to simply post his initial understanding to his blog along with a link to the comp we could have done this whole thing with three emails. Do you know how much time that would save me? Do you realize that we would then have a real trail saved in digital form that is searchable and that answers the questions I will get from Leadership Group? So, on a simple poster, I could save somewhere between 12 to 27 emails. That is what the CIO is asking for … tools that support workflow, increases productivity, and allows us to collaborate in an authentic way. Is anyone feeling this way about email and what are you doing to stop it?