It’s amazing to think that we’ve only been using email for 20 years. That only two decades have passed since this amazing invention popped up on our screens, offering us the chance to send electronic letters to our friends and colleagues (and giving us that cheery audio announcement every time someone sent one to us).
Today, the email is as integral to our world as the fridge, the TV and the washing machine. It’s enabled millions of people (including this author) to adopt remote working and brought huge efficiency gains in the way we work.
And now, it’s being outpaced by a wave of new technologies which are far more effective.
These technologies offer all the speed of an email, but are more precise and flexible. They provide a more human way to communicate, which offers less room for misunderstanding and won’t drown the recipient in noise.
Of course, you can’t stop using emails for your clients. But, for internal communication, you’ll make huge gains by creating an email-free zone, even if (in fact, especially if) your company works remotely. We’re a fully remote team of 20 software engineers and designers and we avoid sending emails for any internal stuff. It’s a rule that’s made us even more productive and agile.
Here are some hacks to help you follow our example, and build an office where email is a thing of the past.
Secure the right communication tools
When used internally, email serves two essential purposes: project management, and social communication (an extension of the chat you hear around the water cooler). If you want to replace email properly, you need specific software for both functions.
So that means investing in a dedicated project management tool, and a messenger which enables real-time communication. There are loads of options for both. Like a lot of remote companies, we use Asana to manage our tasks and Slack for real-time chat, but you’ll find plenty of quality alternatives.
The real benefit of these programs is the personalization they offer. With Asana, you can create a due date for each task and allocate a specific assignee, who will receive automatic notifications before and after the due date, so they don’t forget the task. You can also add a series of followers – people who aren’t responsible but need to be informed. Unlike email, there’s no risk of looping them out by forgetting to hit ‘reply all.’ Any time the task’s updated, they’ll be informed automatically.
With Slack, you can create specific communication channels for each team, as well as social channels so you can post pictures of skateboarding cats, if that’s your thing. It allows you to create clear streams for each project, without disrupting people’s workflow.
The two programs dovetail with one another to create a virtual office. Every time we need a team member to do something, even if it’s just critiquing an idea or giving us feedback on an app’s performance, we ‘create an Asana’. We then use Slack to discuss our projects, and every time a specific action emerges from that discussion, we post a comment on the Asana task.
Two quick hacks. First, be as detailed in your briefs as possible. Whenever you create a task, be sure to include all the information and provide all the context necessary. Second: always make sure you (and everyone else) mark a task complete whenever you’ve finished it. That way you won’t get too much clutter in your in-tray and everyone else will see it’s done, too.
Hold plenty of meetings
One thing we’ve found, both running our own company and in our previous jobs, is that people often use email for things that would be better said in a meeting. When you hold a meeting you reach outcomes more quickly, create more fruitful discussions and build a sense of ownership among those taking part.
Whether you’re remote or home-based, it’s vital to meet regularly. Video-conferencing packages like Google Meet are ideal for virtual meetings, so, even if you’re scattered over large distances (like our company) you can create a productive environment to come together.
It’s important to maximize the value of your meetings, though. If your team works from home, this is even more important: one of the key benefits of remote working is the greater freedom it provides, so your team won’t want to waste time with long, pointless discussions.
When you hold a meeting, physical or virtual, make sure there’s a clear agenda, so everyone knows what to expect, and make sure someone’s taking minutes. If you feel like someone’s drifting off, ask them their view on what’s being discussed. You might even want to rotate the leadership of the meeting, which is a great way to share responsibility and get your team thinking about the topics under discussion.
If in doubt, call
It’s amazing how often people use email to send a negative message to a colleague. Sure, this is the easiest way to tell someone you’re not happy with their work, or behaviour. But it’s also the most dangerous (and not just for the amount of spam that’s flooded our inboxes).
With email, people don’t get to see your face and body language when you’re sending the message, so there’s a good chance they’ll take your observations the wrong way, either by over-estimating the severity of your criticism or missing the context behind it. Email also eliminates the chance for any discussion, so it’s likely you’ll end up with lots of back-and-forth.
Again, if you need to criticize or discipline a colleague, it’s better to hold a meeting and say it face to face. If you’re working from home, this shouldn’t be a problem: using the tools we’ve described above, you can easily arrange a video call. With Slack you can ring somebody just by hitting a button.
Be proactive
In all these tips and hacks, one thing is paramount: you’ve gotta be proactive with your communication. If you want to run an office without the clutter and distraction of email, it’s better to over-communicate than do the opposite.
Whenever you log in and out, send the team a notification via your chat software – and make sure they all do the same. If you think someone is struggling, either with a work or personal problem, reach out to them straight away. Don’t let it build fester.
Your people might struggle to embrace this proactive approach at first, because email culture has allowed us to become slightly passive, relying on templated communication with little thought required. But once they start thinking actively about how they communicate, they’ll come to appreciate the engagement and positivity it brings, and really buy into it.
Not only that, but you can (and should) extend this approach outside the office. By adopting the same strategy with your clients, you’ll provide an even better service, and increase your chances of retaining their business. If our experience is anything to go by, some of them will even end up copying your strategy and ditching email themselves.
