You’re walking innocently across a field. Suddenly you stumble on a hidden land mine. Pow! Disaster strikes. This kind of event happens daily in organizations where people use email extensively.
In coming blog posts, we will explore some of the most explosive areas in business email usage.
1. Writing in Haste
“Act in haste; repent at leisure,” says the proverb. There’s something about the immediacy of email that makes us feel pressured to respond immediately, often before we’ve had a chance to think through our response. In the rush to hit “send”, we might respond before we have all the information we need, or before we’ve let negative feelings settle down. Most of the other land mines in this series could be avoided by simply not rushing to send out emails.
As Steven Covey reminds us, carpenters “measure twice; cut once.” An Anderson respondent advised, “‘Write twice – send once.’ Write it. Save it. Come back and read it again. Rewrite it – and then send it.”
A particular land mine: When we’re in a rush to send an email, we may accidentally send it before we have finished revising it. Then we watch in horror as raw sewage begins to seep through the Internet. The solution? Don’t fill in the “To” space until you’ve finished revising your email.
SOLUTION: Save important emails to your Drafts folder and come back to them at least an hour later. The world will not burn because you waited an hour. Recognize that urge to get the email out of the way as a potentially hazardous impulse and curb it.
You can also disable the automatic send function in MS Outlook. Then even after you hit the “Send” button, you need to press “Send/Receive” at the top of the page before the email actually goes out. This two-step process can save you from making mistakes. As one correspondent wrote, “I have retrieved many emails from my Outbox and given them another look before taking the final, irretrievable step.”
2. Cherishing the Illusions of Privacy and Confidentiality
When we’re sitting at our own little work station, we develop the cozy feeling that “It’s just me and my computer.” Alas, this feeling is an illusion. In reality, the emails we tap out last forever. They are stored on servers from which they can be plucked from oblivion by any IT person worth his salt. They can – and presumably will – be forwarded directly to the person whom we most do not want to read them.
Don’t imagine that the boilerplate confidentiality clause in your signature file will protect you. Remember Goldman Sachs vice president Fabrice Tourre, who wrote the following in an email:
“The whole building is about to collapse anytime now…. Only potential survivor, the fabulous Fab… standing in the middle of all these complex, highly leveraged, exotic trades he created… .”
How do I know he wrote this? I read it on the front page of The Wall Street Journal. Tourre is the only individual who was sued in the case involving collateralized debt obligations. On November 2, 2010, a judge refused to dismiss the charges against him, even though his employer settled its case months ago. It’s hard to imagine that his emails helped his case.
SOLUTION: Imagine your email being sent to your worst enemy or someone to whom you are referring in the email. If you feel uncomfortable at the thought of those people reading what you wrote, don’t send it. Either rewrite it or delete it. Assume that every email will be forwarded.
Avoid stating opinions or perceptions about other people as facts. In general, hedging is not a good practice in writing. However, writing “It seems to me that he doesn’t spend much time at his desk” might protect you where “He is rarely at his desk” leaves you open to a complaint if your email is forwarded to the person in question.
Do not email confidential information. You cannot protect confidentiality in email. If you have any doubt, just reflect on the emails from Merrill Lynch, Enron, Goldman Sachs, Toyota and other big players whose internal emails ended up on the front page of the newspaper. Use the phone. Meet in person. Or maybe even (gasp!) say nothing.