Communicating for Results

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1 Response

  1. Michael Heavener says:

    Items No. 3 and 5 are the key disasters-in-the-making at Microsoft.

    No. 3 says “It is not uncommon for key points of a very long message to get lost or overlooked …” I’ve seen that happen — something you expected to read was followed by something that should have been in a separate message. Nowadays, if I have multiple things to cover, I use the executive summary: “Please read this entire message before replying.”

    No. 5 says “Reread any prior communications before you jump into a tirade …” The Microsoft thought-police really are out there listening in. They really do respond to misuse of email, including anger, frustration, foul language, poor choices of humor, etc.

    As Sherri said, people have a different perception of electronic/written communications. You know what you’re saying — they don’t. and without the visual, subtle clues, there’s no way you can even expect them to understand.

    A long, long time ago in another century, both resulted in disciplinary conversations with my supervisor. It’s still hard to see these mistakes at the time you’re typing. The simplest way to survive is to give yourself a “cooling off” period, and then re-write your message.