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Say less in your emails, get more replies (2017)

gkogan.co

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Re: Say less in your emails, get more replies (2017)

#41

Post by 0xmutt »

ska wrote: post #39
0xmutt wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With regards to Slack or other asynchronous communication methods, its generally a mixed bag in my experience. Folks still tend to target some and not all of the points. Which then leads to more follow-ups. I wonder if this has to do with other interruptions on Slack (or other mediums) occurring at the same time. Pretty common to be responding to something only to be interrupted by something else that pulls your atte…

I don’t understand the distinction you are trying for here - email is also async.

Correct, email is also async. I was mainly providing my experience with respect to Slack or other async communication methods. I could have been clearer.

Re: Say less in your emails, get more replies (2017)

#42

Post by 0xmutt »

nottorp wrote: post #20
0xmutt wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With regards to Slack or other asynchronous communication methods, its generally a mixed bag in my experience. Folks still tend to target some and not all of the points. Which then leads to more follow-ups. I wonder if this has to do with other interruptions on Slack (or other mediums) occurring at the same time. Pretty common to be responding to something only to be interrupted by something else that pulls your atte…

It's sync vs async. Slack won't help if you let it spam you with notifications for every OH SO URGENT message. Make a habit to ignore it and batch answer now and then, between tasks not during tasks. Then teach everyone else in the org to do the same if they don't get the hint.

Agree heavily. Async mediums that interrupt like Slack with all the notifications stink.

Having good habits around notification and interruption management is important. As is making sure everyone understands and operates within the same mindset.

Re: Say less in your emails, get more replies (2017)

#43

Post by safety1st »

nottorp wrote: post #18
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #2

People are notorious for not reading or responding to email. Even business email, about topics vital to their job. If a reply is needed, they'll address either the first or last point raised. Never, ever all the points. Never completely. No wonder people tend to call so many meetings. They can corner colleagues, get a complete, coherent response to complex issues. I wonder if Slack is any better? Do folks respond bet…

> If a reply is needed, they'll address either the first or last point raised. Never, ever all the points. Never completely. Use numbered short topics instead of a wall of text, even if they're all in the same email. It usually gets me a lot more answers than something more prose like. > I wonder if Slack is any better? Do folks respond better to one question at a time? Post numbered short topics :)

It's also valuable to clarify why the information is needed. I don't really have problems getting information from somebody when I email them and the email starts with "We are unable to proceed with until we have answers to these questions: "

As someone who both sends and receives a lot of business email and who is very busy, frankly if your email isn't structured like this, or it's written as a long rambling essay or something, 99% of the time you shouldn't send it

Re: Say less in your emails, get more replies (2017)

#44

Post by vlachen »

haswell wrote: post #8

This is good advice for all types of email; especially work email. When an email really does need lots of detail, I’ve made a habit of always including a BLUF, or “bottom line up front” - kind of like a TL;DR but more focused on identifying the key things I want the reader to know if that’s the only paragraph they read. I also try to structure and label my emails to make it obvious which parts are “please read all of…

I've never thought of it that way, but that's how I've come to write technical responses or evaluations. I know that I can be loquacious, especially when it comes to engineering analysis, so I've taken to write the part that makes everyone say "oh shit" at the top. Then I spend a few paragraphs detailing my methods and results, backing up my "we're screwed" statement.

Re: Say less in your emails, get more replies (2017)

#46

Post by eddd-ddde »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #26
mapierce2 wrote: post #9

The converse lesson here is also important: If you don't want a response to your email, barrage the recipient with text.

If you don't want it to be read , barrage the recipient with text. But then, if you don't want it to be read, why are you sending it?

Corporate life includes giving the appearance of working but being unproductive.

"If I send my email I'm fulfilling my responsibilities but if they don't answer I'm avoiding extra work."

Re: Say less in your emails, get more replies (2017)

#47

Post by nottorp »

0xmutt wrote: post #42
nottorp wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's sync vs async. Slack won't help if you let it spam you with notifications for every OH SO URGENT message. Make a habit to ignore it and batch answer now and then, between tasks not during tasks. Then teach everyone else in the org to do the same if they don't get the hint.

Agree heavily. Async mediums that interrupt like Slack with all the notifications stink. Having good habits around notification and interruption management is important. As is making sure everyone understands and operates within the same mindset.

It’s not slacks fault. Everything interrupts by default until you switch on mute and nail the mute switch down.

Re: Say less in your emails, get more replies (2017)

#48

Post by 0xmutt »

nottorp wrote: post #47
0xmutt wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree heavily. Async mediums that interrupt like Slack with all the notifications stink. Having good habits around notification and interruption management is important. As is making sure everyone understands and operates within the same mindset.

It’s not slacks fault. Everything interrupts by default until you switch on mute and nail the mute switch down.

Sane defaults would be great. The amount of interruptions on a day to day basis I would imagine is a significant drain on the collective attention span.

Re: Say less in your emails, get more replies (2017)

#49

Post by mock-possum »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #26
mapierce2 wrote: post #9

The converse lesson here is also important: If you don't want a response to your email, barrage the recipient with text.

If you don't want it to be read , barrage the recipient with text. But then, if you don't want it to be read, why are you sending it?

Unethical pro life tip - use other people’s poor reading comprehension or laziness in reading thoroughly to get out of responsibilities.

Why isn’t it done yet? Because we’ve been waiting on X to address Y and after three weeks of reminders there’s been to reply or action. It’s X’s fault, not mine, I communicated.

Re: Say less in your emails, get more replies (2017)

#50

Post by gk1 »

jkaptur wrote: post #35
gk1 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Author here) What I've learned, after hundreds of convos with developers sparked by emails like this, is that many people are happy that someone from the company is interested in their project and their opinions. Those who feel that way are glad to get this and they're glad that there's no burden on them to get on a call or schedule a zoom or fill out a questionnaire or even click out of their email client. And thos…

I know nothing about promotional email, but I'm curious if you ever provided links so that the user didn't have to type an answer in order to provide a bit of information - something along the lines of "I'm using this for a personal project" or "I'm considering this for my company".

I've tried that maybe once or twice in the past decade. It was a lot of work to set up. And while it made tallying up results easier (like a poll), it didn't nearly provide as much insight as open-ended answers did.
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