That's sounds like a good idea to me. Heck, businesses ran just fine before there was this new age thing called email. What's wrong with interoffice mail like in the good old days? I swear the current generation couldn't even tell the time if there wasn't an app for that.












j/k

Thoughtful response, NuggetHoarder.

Funny that "rapid fire" email seemed too slow when instant messaging became popular, then SMS on our mobile phones broke our tether to the computer. And then a further generation does most of its text communications through social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) The technology is giving us new options at lightning speed, but social behavior hasn't really been able to keep up with it--at least in developing conventions beyond the merely casual level.

I agree that training would help with whatever communications methods a company decides to use, but how many companies train anyone anymore? Nowadays, employers seem to expect new hires to either already have all the skills they need or it's all on-the-job "training". And forget about ongoing training for existing employees.

I actually prefer email to IM's because they allow me to compose a response with a little thought. Responses do not need to be instantaneous with no thought.

I'm not a fan of twitter and I do not text from my phone.

Just to address this one small portion of the discussion, I just hired someone and I have a training plan in place. The plan includes self-study, formal technical training and shadowing (where the new hire is teamed up with an existing employee and sent out to work with a customer). I received rather less training at this company but I came on board with over a decade of experience.

Companies that want new hires to succeed either need to have a plan in place to train them or need to be hiring people who already know the job.

It's like anything; ideally you'd use the right tool for the job.

IM, telephone and video conferencing are good tools for talking things through and getting quick answers.

One drawback with IM et al. is that it requires your immediate attention; it doesn't allow you to manage how and when you communicate as easily as email does. It also makes for a much more difficult audit trail; when miscommunication happens it can be much more difficult to figure out how things went wrong or what decisions were actually made and approved (an important thing for a consultant!) .

Email is better at communicating complex ideas and those things that require planning, thought and research.

Email also allows for a much more asynchronous form of communication, if you are busy you can simply look at your messages later. Along with this, it is a less demanding form of communication; if I IM, phone, or just show up at your desk I am coming to you with the expectation that you will stop what you are doing and give me your attention now, if I email you I allow the communication to happen on your terms.

Different jobs will have different demands so the appropriate toolbox of technologies will differ from job to job.

Note that Atos continues to use email for outward (ex. customer-facing) business. Its just internal to Atos that they're opting out of email as a communication tool. I can buy that, it may be worth a try there. They are essentially a European company, so they can IM and communicate with co-workers in nearly the same time zones without alot of cost from removing the email tool. And I have to believe that for asynchronous situations (ex. 5 week European vacation schedules) there could still be some emails in the cards for Atos workers. But in alot of cases, you have other options - wikis or sharepoints for example. Also, sometimes you want data retention, and sometimes you don't. I work in a heavily litigious environment, I can't even remember the last time my work email wasn't on indefinite data retention for a regulatory and/or IPR reasons. If EU regulators ever approached Atos execs for their retained communications, it may be better to not have email in the first place; because they can't suddenly require that you use email if they want to put you on data retention (or at least I don't think they can force it on you, even in the EU).

Time has a way of removing technology tools all the time. We could approach a period when fewer and fewer folks are accessible via email addresses, but can be reached by near instant IM, Skype or Lync type messaging platforms that track our location and status more directly than traditional email. I already get alot of phone calls first thing in the AM when I log onto my email and my Lync shows me as Available, co-workers in different time zones will use that as a sign I can be contacted, and either call me on my laptop (which receives my work phone calls automatically) or IM me. They don't know I'm sitting in my underwear just sipping my first cup of coffee...

I remember the days before email, and I look forward to the days without it again someday. And hopefully I'll be able to log off of all the instantaneous communications 'options' as well, and just be blessedly offline.

I am old enough to remember those days. We used to have these things called "routing slips". They were just a list of names, usually of everyone in your department. You'd staple them to a memo. When it showed up in your mailbox (not email box, but "regular box") you would read it and cross your name off and go put it in the next uncrossed off name's mail box.

Our boss routed EVERYTHING. I think he invented spam. Because these routing slips were anonymous about who started the memo on it's route, we started picking up all kinds of garbage from our trash cans - orange peels, used Kleenix, etc. - and sticking routing slips on them and sending them on their way.

Believe it or not, the boss finally got the hint!

I've heard of such too - but this was more based on the idea the Millenium Generation prefers things like IMs, twittering, etc. so email might be a dying technology. Me, I think that's kaphooey. As a baby boomer, I can't get a handle on how very short messages can carry any real information at all. Other than "meet me at 10:00 am in Conference rm 2". I rarely text, I don't IM, and I have some condescending feelings about "twits" er rather twitters and their channels.

I mean what would be the point of having Bulletin Boards and Forums or even blogs then?

However there are evils associated with emails too. They can take over your day and propagate without warning. My personal pet peeve is my supervisor who inisists on Reply ALL with attachements thus killing everybodies email boxes!

It will be interesting to see how this works out.

I don't think it will work well. There just are too many things that email excell at. Email is good for targeting specific people with a well thought out and formulated question - and answering those questions.

But it would do good to weed out the things that email don't handle very well. There are also things that email DO well but still should be handled through other means. "Memo"-like messages from the boss is much better presented through internal web pages, blogs and the like.

There are also a whole ecosystem of different systems that gives you the functionality of twitter, facebook, newsgroups, blogging and anything in between - but exclusive to your corporate network. I'd love to try something like those in a work environment. "tweeting" or blogging about some dilemmas or problems might be infinetly more fun and productive than bogging people with emails ...

The best way to improve email productivity is to get rid of the idea that email is something you "read". Going through correspondence is an active task, not passive reading, so you "do" or "process" email. Schedule time for it (such as twice a day), and don't touch your email client at other times.

The email is processed according to the 4 D's: DO - Delete - Defer - Delegate. If you can't answer immediately (or if it takes more than 2 minutes to answer), move it to another folder and schedule a time to answer it later. Have a folder system so you know where to archive the stuff you want to keep. Delegate whatever someone else should take care of and delete the rest. Your inbox should be empty when you're done.

Like any other tools, instant messaging have their place and function. What I don't like is the idea that I can be interupted whenever, wherever. But I guess if we used IM more internally at work I would have to learn how to fine tune the "available" settings...