Circumlocutions

Inter­est­ing arti­cle dis­cussing con­flict res­o­lu­tion through var­i­ous media for­mats:
http://davefleet.com/2008/11/how-rich-is-your-communication-conflict/ I wanted to share my expeiences with email in particular.

The use­less­ness of email as a seri­ous com­mu­ni­ca­tion method can­not be over­stated. I have stepped into heated email threads across divi­sions by walk­ing to one side’s desk and sim­ply stat­ing the same argu­ment that was made by email. The result? Smiles, cooperation.

Have you ever received an email that infu­ri­ated you? I have. I must admit that I have sent emails that I knew would frus­trate peo­ple. One word responses, delib­er­ately not answer­ing the unasked-but-implied ques­tion. When I’ve had my cof­fee, though, I will never reply to an email that gets to me when I receive it. If it’s pos­si­ble I’ll walk over to dis­cuss the issue with the per­son; if that’s not pos­si­ble, I’ll wait until I can write a ratio­nal and unemo­tional response.

Using email with­out actively think­ing about its pos­si­ble pit­falls will never work for you.