Email misjudgments can land people in jail.
Just ask James A. Brown, ex-Merrill Lynch executive who wrote in an email that Enron had “promised” that Merrill would get their money back in a suspicious Enron deal involving barges off the coast of Nigeria. According to the Wall Street Journal (10/23/10) “a possible turning point came when investigators discovered a March 2001 email written by Mr. Brown. He wrote that Mr. Fastow [of Enron] had made a ‘promise to pay us back no matter what.’” Speaking from prison, Mr. Brown says he wrote the email hastily and never meant to suggest an illegal guarantee. Merrill Lynch and Enron are not alone in suffering from email errors. Goldman Sachs, Toyota, and many others have been blindsided by the reality that every email can be subpoenaed and published on the front page.
In my book, Get to the Point! Painless Advice for Writing Letters, Emails and Memos Clients Will Understand, 2nd edition (Mesa 2010) I point out that emails written quickly in the presumed privacy of one’s office can cause terrible repercussions in business writing. As the proverb goes, “Act in haste; repent at leisure.” People often forget that emails last forever. Email land mine number one is: writing in haste. Never rush to respond to an email. The world will not burn if you wait an hour to reply. Get all the information. Think through your response. Proofread carefully.
For more tips on writing email successfully, sign up for our Ten Principles of Successful Email at WorkTalk. You will gain the tools to use email effectively while avoiding the potential land mines associated with what are now the four most dangerous letters in the English language: S-E-N-D.
Contact me at lizd@worktalk.com or (310) 396-8303 to learn about sponsoring a seminar in your business.