How we have improved internal communication and transparency by removing emails
At Partnear we are always looking to find efficiencies and improve the transparency in our delivery process. One of the areas that we identified early, was email communication. In our view, email is a tool developed to replicate the physical letter. Yes, it is now instant, but think about its shortcomings;
Emails are often forwarded on, with multiple side discussions taking place. How do you know that all communication on a topic has been captured in one place and available to the relevant parties?
The audience is constrained to only the original recipients or those who have had it forwarded to them. Important information can be held in inboxes and if someone takes leave, how do you pass on the information to the new project managers/employees?
Attachments are a poor method of collaboration on documents, especially with the digital tools now available.
Even with ‘smart’ email clients and methods of email management, duplication and clutter occurs in every inbox.
We have adopted a ‘No Internal Email’ rule at Partnear. You might think that this is not possible, especially with COVID lockdowns and working from home, but even with our growing team we are finding that it actually works and very effectively! The reasons that it can be successful especially when working in small teams is;
Most project discussion is informal, why do we need to write a metaphorical letter?
The speed of the communication is important.
Project discussion needs to be recorded to understand the history and decisions made.
Communication can be broadcast to a wider team and targeted to those that require it.
We use systems and documents that have communication integrated into their function, can share across platforms and are available on any smart device. The combined effect is that conversation can occur anywhere and can be viewed and responded to quickly and effortlessly.
Don’t get me wrong, we still use email as a communication tool externally (don't be deterred, we do check emails and answer the phone) but we avoid it wherever possible.
At Partnear, we are striving for inbox zero.
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