BCC, FWD, OOO and All the Trappings of Email
I am old enough to remember using PINE for email. That flashing green cursor, the old-school noisy keyboards, the packed computer labs. I also recall that, as a very new professional, I got to witness more seasoned colleagues figure out how to use email to increase efficiency (or not!) and productivity. When I started in higher ed, email was just in its infancy, and now, three decades later, we use it as a seamless tool in our everyday life.
Your department – and your whole campus – has cultural norms around email, and I bet you haven’t talked about them with your team lately. Given how much we rely on this tool, we should have a shared understanding of how we use it, right?
Your “email norms” determine the way you communicate with, well, everyone, and how you use email impacts how your department is viewed and how your team views one another. As the leader-boss, you set expectations across the board for your team, and the shared understanding of use of this tool is no different.
How can you assess your email cultural norms? By asking yourself a series of questions, and asking your direct reports to verify or amend your thinking, I bet you will find the pain points, gaps and strengths in how your team uses this tool and can adjust where needed to improve efficiencies and effectiveness. Given that email is one of our most important tools for communication – and that communication is critical to team effectiveness, devoting an hour or two to this topic can render amazing results!
Don’t know where to start? Consider four categories of questions: Who? What? When? and How?
Who do we send emails to?
- Are we sending emails to people who use email effectively?
- Do we send emails to too many people (are we over-carboncopying)?
- Are there folks we are emailing that we shouldbe communicating with differently?
- Who do we BCC, and when?
- What do we believe about “reply-all” uses?
What do we send emails about?
- Are there topics that are best for email, versus other communications?
- What topics are off-limits for email?
- When we email, do we have standards for information that should be addressed in a particular manner (confidentiality, sensitive information)?
- Do we have shared expectations about using email for decision-making, FYI info dumps, and lengthy topics?
When do we use email?
- Are there times of day that are most-accepted or limited-use for emailing?
- When is replying to an off-hours email a necessity?
- How many emails get sent to folks among us? Are we overwhelming one another with email?
- Are we using email to avoid difficult conversations?
Our logistics: How do we use this tool?
- Do we have an understood length or amount of detail that is preferred?
- How long do folks have to respond to an email?
- What should be included in our signature lines?
- How do we let people know what they can expect from our department for our email norms?
- Do our email norms meet the needs of our constituents and coworkers?
Wondering what to do once you’ve conducted your informal audit? If *any* of these questions leave you thinking that maybe your team might not all be on the same page, consider making email a topic of staff professional development. To do so, you can use these questions as a starting place to spark discussion among your group and make shared agreements about expectations together. Changing your email norms and adjusting your culture can lead to better efficiencies and more reliable communication among your team.
(Bonus: as a ProDev topic, it’s concrete and actionable, which people really like!) Want a thought partner to plan it with you (or facilitate)? You know where to find me!
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