| Greetings!
I'm calling this my "April Fools" issue, mostly because I wrote it late last week, but realized I would be sending it out during the Easter Holiday for many folks, so I'm delaying send until April 1. Hope you all had a wonderful Easter holiday!
Well, we survived our move (barely), and now officially live on the other side of East Lansing, Michigan. Of course, we unofficially live in a huge pile of boxes right now, and I'm pretty sure we will continue to do so for about another 3 months as we slowly unwind from the move. Moving is a highly disruptive process, no matter how well organized you are for it, but I'm loving the new neighborhood we are in and am excited about setting up the new home not only for our family, but also Randall Dean Consulting & Training, LLC (yes, the new home has a great spot for my home-based office! And I'm going to "trick it out" for maximum productivity.)
Last month, we started a discussion on Carbon Copies, Forwards, and Replies, and did a pretty deep dive on the overuse and improper use of CC's. This month, I'd like to discuss the second part of this trifecta: Replies and REPLY ALL. |
| A Discussion on CC's, Replies, and Forwards -- Part II: Reply & Reply All | This is ALWAYS the place to look for your Timely Tip!
E-mail Reply is one of the most amazing functions ever invented. It allows you to quickly and easily respond to an e-mail request, question, or query in a few seconds flat. And therein lies its curse: everyone knows they can use it easily and quickly, and many of them do without thinking. Add to that "Reply All", and things can quickly get over the top.
My first tip with all Replies is the same as with all words that leave your mouth -- THINK FIRST. Think: do I even need to reply? Think: if I do reply, do I add value/clarity -- or confusion -- or even clutter to the communication stream? If you add value for EACH AND EVERY recipient, go ahead and send. If not, don't! (Or at least TARGET the reply to ONLY THOSE recipients that will receive value from the reply.)
Some people feel that if they receive an e-mail, they must reply. They believe that is common courtesy. They believe they have been invited to a conversation, so it is their turn to respond. But I challenge that assumption. Perhaps, were you simply included in the original send for a status update and/or task request? If so, wouldn't a simple reply stating "Message received -- thanks (EOM NRN)," or possibly "Task understood -- will complete by DATE (NRN)," be sufficient? Editorial by the recipient in these cases is neither needed or wanted -- just confirmation that the message/task was received and will be acted upon.
And if you are the sender of the original message and are asking for thoughts/advice/opinion, make that VERY clear in your message. But I will challenge you -- isn't that a better time for a personal conversation and/or small team meeting? E-mail isn't very good for soliciting discussion and opinion -- that's where two-way, real-time communication methods tend to work better. Diagnose each and every communication situation and ask, "Is e-mail the correct method? Or is there a better way?" Often, a quick phone call or "stop by" or meeting will be more efficient and effective than e-mail, especially if there is potential for confusion, complexity, or misunderstanding.
And remember, a REPLY is an individual e-mail in and of itself -- the same rules apply for a newly written e-mail: at the very top of the message, before any previous text, you should clearly state to the recipient 1) why they are receiving the e-mail, 2) what they need to know, 3) what they need to do, and 4) when then need to have it done by. Clear away confusion by following this simple clarity regimen with ALL e-mails sent.
Now, let's slay a beast: REPLY ALL. This is the bane of many working professionals -- people that flippantly hit the "Reply All" button rather than the straight "Reply" button, and often with text like, "Thanks!", or "Got it!", or even highly personal and even inappropriate comments going out to a large group, often with many people you don't even know! THINK FIRST! Who needs this reply? Who doesn't? And then take the time to remove those that DO NOT need the reply.
(Every time you add unnecessary recipients to an e-mail reply or distribution list, you open up a "Pandora's Box" of possibilities -- first, you are simply creating e-mail that never needed to be received by many of the recipients -- that will cause them at least a few seconds of work to figure out what the e-mail is and what they need to do with it (delete!). But, they might also hit Reply All to your Reply All and add even more unnecessary communication to the stream. Now, a dangerous e-mail multiplier has been born, and could really clog up communications and productivity. Add to that an inappropriate comment and/or opinion, and an "e-mail firebomb" may have just been set in motion, with a "work/productivity destruction multiplier" in play. Stop the insanity! My humble opinion: reply all should almost never be used, except to tell others to stop using reply all!) ;-)
Of interest, Microsoft has recently built an Outlook add-on that will disable reply all on your sent messages. Apparently, Microsoft must be aware of the possible damage of Reply All to workplace productivity and morale!
And, after I sent last month's issue on CC's & BCC's, Timely Tips reader J. Patrick Moore sent a reminder to me of a really GOOD way to use BCC: if you BCC all recipients to an original message, by default, they can ONLY reply to the original sender, even if they hit "Reply All". Thus, use BCC when you want to disable the possibility of Reply All by all of your recipients. That is truly a Timely Tip! ;-)
Now, once again, I don't claim to be the purveyor of all knowledge in this area -- I welcome your comments on this discussion. Are there some best practices with Replies and even Reply All's that you or your firm are using to assist with productivity/efficiency/effectiveness? If so, I'd love to hear from you.
Next month, we'll discuss the proper use of Forwards, including how to make them more action/task-oriented. |
Upcoming Public Programs/Conferences:
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On April 2, I'll be leading sessions at the Iowa State University Professional Development Day.
On April 11, I'm leading a quick morning session on Finding an Extra Hour including Taming the E-mail Beast for the Greater Lansing Convention & Visitors Bureau here in East Lansing.
On April 22, I'm doing my Smart Phone Success program for the American Council of Engineering Companies in DC.
On April 23, I'll be doing my popular Taming the E-mail Beast session at HSMAI's MEET in Chicago at the Navy Pier.
On April 26, I'll be doing the Smart Phone Success program at the National Association of Legal Career Professionals conference in Tampa.
On May 2, I'll be leading my Taming the E-mail Beast session at the Association of Missouri Electrical Coops in Branson, MO.
On May 9, I'll be leading my Taming E-mail/Office Clutter program at U. Michigan HRD. And on May 10, I'll be leading my Getting More Done: Time Management for Busy Managers program at U.M. Dearborn.
On May 14, I'll be leading my Smart Phone Success & Terrific Tablets program at Michigan State University HRD.
And on May 16, I'll be at the Wisconsin Health Information Management Association conference in Madison, WI.
(And there are several other private client events happening between now and then, so yes, things are VERY busy right now, which is good, as I have a new house and a whole bunch of furniture to pay for!)
If you want more information on any of these events, send me a reply at timelyman@gmail.com or randy@randalldean.com.
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And the great unwind begins ...
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Excuse my French, but moving stinks. Last night, my big accomplishment was getting our new garage rearranged so I could actually park both cars in our 2.5 car garage (couldn't do that for the first week as it was loaded with boxes!)
My next target: my home office -- and I'm going to "do it right", with a focus and goal of increased organization, productivity, and technology and MUCH LESS PAPER!
Moving is highly disruptive as many of you know, but now I'm genuinely excited about the opportunities of this new home & office, and our new neighborhood. More updates coming soon, especially where I have ideas on how to make your office/workstation more productive too! (And I expect to hopefully start doing more public programs and webinars too now that I am clear of this major work/life hurdle -- look for info on that too.) |
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Look for another Timely Tips before the end of April, with the final part of our 3-part series on CC's, Replies, and Forwards. And please use the links below to connect "socially".
Until next month, Stay Timely!
Randy Dean
Randall Dean Consulting & Training, LLC
http://www.randalldean.com
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Apps of the Month
CardMunch for IPhone (& CamCard for Android Users)
| CardMunch App -- available only on ITunes App Store.
On Android? Check out CamCard as an alternative.
I have been leading my new Smart Phone Success & Terrific Tablets program now for more than a year, with great success. Part of the success of the program is when I open up the floor at the end to hear about great new apps I haven't used yet. Once I hear an app more than 3 times, I know it MUST work well, and that leads to this month's recommended app, CardMunch.
It is a business card reader that uses the camera on your smart phone or tablet to capture an image of the business card and populate it into a contacts database. People in my sessions claim it saves them hours per month vs. manual inputting of biz cards.
Of interest, it was developed by LinkedIn, and links nicely into that popular social network's online database. Right now, it is only available for IPhone & IPad, but it is expected versions will be out soon for BlackBerry and Android.
If you are an Android user, you could check out a previously recommended app -- CamCard -- until CardMunch becomes available for Android. You'll note that both of these are paid apps -- probably due to the very high utility of these apps. If this is a big part of your job, they are both worth a look.
Check them out and let me know your thoughts! |
| LOTS of new people have subscribed -- get back issues and bonuses HERE! |
| Once again, I have spoken to SEVERAL big groups in the last three months, and we have even more new subscribers to Timely Tips because of this.
If you are a new subscriber, WELCOME! I'd like to give you a backlink to the December 2012 issue of Timely Tips, as that issue contained links to ALL back issues of Timely Tips as well as several useful and shareable articles and tip sheets (look in the second article under the intro to find these useful tools).
Here is the link to the December 2012 issue.
And thanks for being a subscriber to Timely Tips. Feel free to invite friends, coworkers, and colleagues to join too, as we work to find more time and productivity for professionals far and wide!
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| A New Program: Using Today's Technology to Always Be Connected | | |
Last week, I led this new, customized program at the joint OMCA/ABA event in Bay City, Michigan. It was so well received I have been asked to lead it again at the OMCA event in Toronto later this year.
In essence, I built out my Smart Phone Success & Terrific Tablets program to also include the necessary hardware and software to be truly productive and effective in a mobile environment/job/career.
It was a "Super Session" 2.5 hours in length, and might be a very good workshop for those in "road warrior" positions (sales, real estate, conference/meeting planning, multi-site offices, etc.)
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