During the last few years, I have noticed certain changes or patterns in email communication that can potentially damage virtual work. I am afraid that these patterns may be on their way to becoming a part of email communication culture. Many email users may be falling into these usage patterns without realizing their potentially damaging effects. With the idea of making email users more aware of their email usage patterns and the effects of such patterns, I discuss the following in this post:

1. The changes or patterns that I have been observing in email communication,
2. The potential for these patterns to damage virtual work, and
3. What one can do to minimize the damage.

Some recent patterns in email communication

Over time, I have been observing the following trends in email communication.

1. Increasing number of cases where there is no response or untimely response to queries.
2. Increasing lack of acknowledgment of receipt of task (from another team member or team leader) or confirmation of one’s ability to accomplish the task by the due date.
3. Absence of feedback or appreciation for work that was accomplished.  I am referring to appreciation beyond a mere ‘thank-you’. I am referring to feedback that clearly indicates what contribution a team member’s work or effort has made to the accomplishment of  team goals (e.g., “because of your input, the team has a fresh perspective on how we should approach the issues that we are facing”).
4. Increasing instances of emails in which the work that is due (e.g., a report) is sent as an attachment but the body of the email has absolutely nothing in it.

There are a variety of phenomena that may account for these trends. One of them is the email overload caused by the large number of emails that one receives these days. The above trends may simply be a consequence of fatigue and being overwhelmed by email overload. Feeling overwhelmed can lead to an inability to wade through one’s email in a timely manner as well as an inability to fully read and absorb others’ messages. Another phenomenon behind the above trends may be the increasing use of personal digital assistants such as the Blackberry or the Apple iPhone, which make it harder to craft an email.

Whatever the reasons, I believe that these trends are changing the norms for acceptable and unacceptable email communication. Individuals, for instance, may simply send emails with attachments but without any contextual messages to orient the receiver because that is how they have received communication from others. They may not see that if the patterns that I described above continue, they may damage virtual work.

Potential to damage virtual work

I see the above email usage patterns potentially damaging virtual work by undermining leadership in virtual teams. Responding to others’ emails, acknowledging the receipt of a task, indicating one’s ability to accomplish it by a certain time, giving feedback or expressing appreciation, and providing a context in one’s emails all serve to fulfill important leadership functions in virtual work, such as removing uncertainty, giving positive feedback to reinforce and motivate good performance, and showing consideration towards others. By not doing so, a leader may be missing simple and frequent opportunities to lead others.

The above pattern of email communication can also lead to erroneous assumptions within the team. Virtual work often involves a high level of interdependence among workers. It is rare that a team leader has to simply aggregate the inputs from all members to produce the team’s work. The output from one is often the input for others. Failing to confirm that the task was received and can be accomplished in a timely manner creates an uncertainty for the leader and others in the team about next steps. In the absence of an acknowledgment, the sender and the leader of the team may assume that the work was received and that the receiver will be able to accomplish it by the due date. But quite often this assumption proves to be wrong, leaving the team to scramble at the last moment to finish what could not be accomplished by a team member.

In addition to delaying the team’s work, this last minute scrambling could hurt the social relationships within the team by causing stress and frustration among members. In a past post, we discussed the importance of social relationships for virtual work. Social relationships are also slowly damaged by the stress and frustration that result when queries go unanswered. They are also damaged by the signal to other members about not wanting to communicate with them when one sends a blank email with the work due attached to it. When one continues to not provide feedback or show appreciation for the work done by others in the team, others are less motivated to make future contributions that positively impact the team’s work. I suspect that these effects on social relationships and motivation will be more acute in newer teams than in older teams with already strong bonds.

Actions to minimize damage

Leaders can be a positive influence on team members by modeling the behaviors they would like to see within the team. Leaders should make sure that they send emails acknowledging team member requests, provide feedback, and take the time to craft emails in a way that models effective communication. If these things are done from the beginning, the team will begin to establish norms based on these communication habits.

If a negative pattern of communication has developed within the team and it is affecting team work and/or relationships, then it may be necessary for the team leader to intervene. This could be done in several ways, such as (a) giving feedback to a team member or the team as necessary, and/or (b) asking the team to engage in a discussion about expectations and etiquette for email communication and establish agreed upon norms to ensure that uncertainty is minimized and the social bonds remain intact. Becky reminded me that she once sent an email to someone with an attachment and no message. Although the person who she was sending it to was expecting it, he very politely sent her a reply saying that he had a blanket rule of not accepting emails and opening attachments if there was no personalized message and signature from the sender. This was to protect him and his machine from potential viruses. This simple intervention provided a lasting lesson to Becky about the importance of adding contextual information to emails, whether work-related or personal.

Leaders can also make sure that email is used for situations it is best suited to. By doing so, they would cut down email overload. In past Leading Virtually posts, specifically in Freeing yourself from Email and Emergent Collaboration: The Reason Why Email Should Not Be Used For Collaboration, Betsy and I have described situations for which email may not be the best choice for communication. Team leaders and team members will need to be diligent in making sure that they match the tools available to them to the situations they face rather than use something that might be easiest or most familiar.