As I was reading through a newspaper, I came across this proposed idea
of the ten commandments of e-mail, which I prudently found fitting to
share the piece of information with the members of the L and its
managers, for guidelines.
Although the Rules for e-mail have yet to be written, it is high
time,says Philadelphia-based communications coach NICK MORGAN, who
wrote the list in the March 1999 issue of Harvard Communications
Up-date.
The following are the proposed rules which I hope the managers of
Gambia-L, would adopt some in the near future to balance views:
1. DELETE THAT E-MAIL
"You have several choices," reads the first commandment.
"Scan headers, and delete everything you don't need to know or act
upon materially." It's okay to ignore an e-mail the same way you might
a letter or a phone message. And when you are sending messages,
remember that they should be short and informal, and that they can't
replace a phone call.
2. BREAK FREE FROM ATTACHMENTS
The second commandment chides those who send attachments.
"An enormous amount of time and energy is wasted in the corporate
world by people struggling with incompatible formats, files that never
arrived, and attachments that got garbled or stripped off the
message." Instead, find a good spot on a company intranet for posting
and downloading.
3.COUNT TO TEN, THEN SEND
Don't send e-mail when you're tired or furious."E-mail can easily be
angry, hurtful, or critical," Morgan says. "It takes a lot of time to
undo the damage." treat e-mail like letters and phone calls; wait for
a calmer moment to respond.
4. THERE'S NOTHING LIKE THE REAL THING
Never substitute e-mail for a necessary face-to-face meeting -
especially when it comes to reprimanding, rewarding, or firing
someone. Also remember that misdirected messages can get messy,
especially when they are of personal nature.
5. A STITCH IN TIME
Take advantange or the timesaving bells and whistles your e-mail
program offers. Keep an up-to-date address book, and never delete
names and addresses. You never know when someone will come back into
your digital life.
6. BREAK THE CHAIN
Chain e-mail is not only tacky, it's banned from many corporate
networks. Consider the bandwidth lost to Bill Gates jokes alone, says
Morgan. These beasts with monstrous headers and massive footers should
be squelched at all costs.
7. RUMOR, GOSSIP AND HEARSAY
Don't pass on rumor or innuendo about real people. This could come
back to haunt you. E-mail can easily forwarded to the wrong person, or
worse, to the subject of your non-affection. Not only does e-mail have
uncanny ability of being resurrected, as Microsoft knows, it can also
be used against you in a court of law.
8. DO UNTO OTHERS
Flaming - sending an abusive or insulting e-mail - is usually a
mistake. Would you say it in person? If not, don't send it.
9. PERSONAL BANDWIDTH
Remember the hierarchy when it comes to communications. First there is
face-to-face meetings, then phone calls, then voice mail, and then
e-mail has the narrowest communications bandwidth.
It's hard enough to communicate successfully under the best of
circumstances, says Morgan. If it's an important message that can't be
said face-to-face, then pick up the phone, or leave voice mail. Or, if
you must, send an e-mail.
10. NO ONE IS PERFECT
If it absolutely must be perfect, then don't e-mail it. E-mail can be
the Bermuda Triangle of writing. Punctuation, spelling and grammer get
mysteriously lost.
If your message must be error-free, it should be sent by another
medium. If you insist on sending it via e-mail, print it out and go
over it line by line for errors.
Wish you all a nice thought and a balance view.
Haruna Farage
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