To Email Or Not To Email

At this point in the land of modern technology, we are at a precipice. Is email going, going gone? Doubt it. But there sure is a growing chorus of email-haters out there. And with good reason!

How many emails does it take to setup a meeting, have a meeting — where it is then decided to send more email about a follow-up meeting? Then the meeting of all meetings finally happens, and 50% of the people at the conference table don’t even remember what thread housed the spreadsheets for the meeting (oh never mind somebody forgot to send them out to the team.) Sound familiar?

How to make the best use of email is a hot topic when it comes to internal communication and time management. And while there are many programs available from free Chatter to Druple to SharePoint, there is also an interesting discussion and some external research being done on how email can improve your workflow and…save your sanity.

Rather than email one another back and forth resulting in endless email chains, colleagues rely on the social software for instant burst of messages enabling quicker response times to questions and a thinner email inbox.

When asked if these sexy new tools can truly replace email, David Grossman, CEO of the The Grossman Group, said:

“I think we’re already at the point where there is a ton of overload inside the organization. Something has to give. Adding channels and adding to the overall communications mix isn’t taking anything away. The future is: how do we re-balance internal communications to make sure that we have the vehicles and tools that really focus on employees’ needs and help them get the information they need?”