Over the weekend TechCrunch's Michael Arrington and Mark Cuban - a known email enthusiast - lamented about the challenges in dealing with their email overload issues. While I don't doubt they get a lot of mail, I can't feel sorry for either of them. Most bloggers and companies would love to get such valuable feedback from their stakeholders. Further, I do not believe the solution to their pains is technological; it's philosophical and social.
When you run a business, you're in the public eye and (last but not least) you put yourself out there with a blog then you need to embrace feedback - period. I don't care if it's good, bad or ugly. Every in-bound email that's not blatant spam is potentially an opportunity, not a problem. Seth Godin does a great job in explaining this philosophy in his new book Meatball Sundae. Note trends one and two.
Every piece of email that a company, a CEO or even an individual receives is an opportunity to learn and grow. Technology can help you wrangle the e-herd. But I believe that even if you don't respond to every email, it's important to at least scan or read them. Email bankruptcy is not a viable option in this world.
Take the principles David Allen outlines in Getting Things Done and embed this kind of thinking throughout your organization. You never know what great ideas, evangelists or critics that are lurking in your email that need tending to.
Everyone should embrace feedback and mine it for insights. Don't run from it. This applies to bloggers, media companies, CEOs and organizations of all sizes. Technology can help but I argue that you need to reframe "the problem" and view it as a great way to learn about your stakeholders. It's public relations.
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Comments (2)
One of the real problems is technology educated CEO'S only deal with machine's not people ! A push button answer does not satisfy a person !
One example is Twitter which I like, but it has a lot of Tech Snobs posting ! Especially from the West Coast ! If one of us THE UNWASHED,who do not reside in Silicon Valley post a twit we get slammed ! A leader in communicating with his public is Chris Brogan ,he understands , also Scoble who has his phone number on his blog ! I find you make efforts with your twits to educate and inform ! S I Hawakawa wrote Language in Thought and Action great read ! When you get an E Mail it should be added to your knowledge base not your trash Box ! People who do not write for a Living are not really aware of the Human Condition !
Posted by marshal sandler | March 24, 2008 10:00 AM
Posted on March 24, 2008 10:00
Yea. I think Chris Brogan wrote a post of how to organize email too. Maybe they should read that to help out organizing their emails.
Sometimes when people start a twitter or blog they don't realize about the branding that is needed and the opening to the media. Even commenting to a blog too.
So every little thing you say (or write) is being looked at by someone just like people wondering if the market is going to go up or down based on the color of Greenspans tie.
Another thing you mentioned is about people and not machines. Yes I understand some people are behind those machine typing away and communicating (still not the same). That is why it is good for MBA like me to come in and help out the communication between the techie CEO that dropped out of Harvard to do a start up.
However I haven't heard of any companies hiring people to do this kind of job, if so.. Let me know.. LOL
Interesting post.. Look forward to hearing more Steve.
Posted by Nick Schmidt | March 26, 2008 12:50 AM
Posted on March 26, 2008 00:50