The future of Pointless Messages

Here is a nice little snippet. I believe as human beings we respond very well to creativity, yet so much of our communication & day to day activity is sadly lacking in it as we send more e-mails, use more power point & create less face-to-face interaction. Digital technology can be a great tool but it needs to be used in tandem with a more creative thought process to be really effective. It is so easy to de-humanise, as we ‘press send’ again & again, day in, day out. We do need to inject more humanity in our interaction.

And if humanity can be brought about through creativity…. Creativity is I feel essentially a form of human expression which communicates emotionally & intellectually the individual’s thoughts & feelings concerning themes about self, dreams & visions, issues and relationships. All people are therefore creative. Creativity is about humanity. For example, I read last week: A vision keeps us focused; it gives us a discipline to create objectives and strategies to achieve the vision.  In other words, vision can help us to pursue our dreams, our future opportunities. Vision without action, is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.¹

By the way, ever been deep in work, concentrating hard on a serious task, when your computer announces the arrival of a new email to your inbox? Often, the temptation to check the contents of the email is too much to resist: you stop what you're doing, switch over to your inbox only to find the email is a message from a friend, a FB update or a humorous video. By the time you've read or deleted the pointless message, your head is on things other than your original task & concentration needs to be re-established.  

I read with interest recently about Atos in France. It's one of the largest information technology companies in the world, and it's banned email. The new CEO, Thierry Breton, believes the productivity of his staff is being seriously eroded by having to deal with pointless emails, both work & private. Thierry believes "it is time to think differently. The email is no longer the appropriate communication tool & the deluge of information will be one of the most important problems a company will have to face in the future."²

He wants his people to have more face-to-face interaction & to use instant messaging systems instead. This, he believes will encourage more meaningful interaction, save time & result in greater efficiency. Instinct tells me that Thierry is probably right. I'm old enough to remember a time when business functioned perfectly well without email. Admittedly the fax was always a terribly painful way to communicate with contacts, but we certainly picked up the phone and met them face to face more often. We built relationships with them, not the type which can be jeopardised by a poorly-worded email accidentally conveying the wrong tone.

No one could argue that the deluge of information that Thierry talks of is not going to be a real consideration for businesses in the future, but might this really mean the end of email use in business? Time will tell and we will...
Oh hold on, I've just heard the ping of an email arriving. Back in a sec.

1. Posted in Personal Finance January 20, 2012 - Amanda Morrall

2. Inspired by a story from Glenn Mason, December 1st 2012