Perils of the 10-second Email

Two-third of our communication with people around us is nonverbal. This means that two third of the information we share about everything gets shared through factors like facial expression, posture, eye contact, voice quality, pitch, tone, style etc. Consecutively, the effectiveness of a communication between two individuals depends on their mutual ability to incorporate and interpret both verbal and non-verbal elements of the communication.

Given the crucial, and often dominating part that non-verbal elements play in our interactions with others, it is important that we appreciate the value these elements bring to our communications, and realize that our communications suffer from significant handicaps in absence of these. To further illustrate my point, I would request the reader to watch one of my all-time favorite video clips below.

Now, if Lt. Col. Slade were to deliver the speech in writing, minus all the vocal histrionics, one doubts if Mr. Simms would have managed to escape the ire of the disciplinary committee.

At best, Lt. Col. Slade’s speech would have looked something like this:

“Mr. Sims doesn’t want it. He doesn’t need to labeled, “…still worthy of being a ‘Baird Man.'” What the hell is that? What is your motto here? “Boys, inform on your classmates, save your hide. Anything short of that we’re gonna burn you at the stake?” Well, gentlemen. When the shit hits the fan, some guys run and some guys stay. Here’s Charlie–facing the fire, and there’s George–hiding in big Daddy’s pocket. And what are you doin’? You’re gonna reward George, and destroy Charlie.

Now I don’t know who went to this place–William Howard Taft, William Jennings Bryan, William Tell–whoever. Their spirit is dead; if they ever had one, it’s gone. You’re building a rat ship here. A vessel for sea going snitches. And if you think you’re preparing these minnows, for manhood you better think again. Because I say you are killing the very spirit this institution proclaims it instills. What a sham! What kind of show you guys puttin’ on here today? I mean, the only class in this act is sittin’ next to me. And I say, this boy’s soul is intact. It’s non-negotiable. You know how I know? Because someone here–I’m not gonna say who–offered to buy it. Only Charlie here wasn’t selling.

If I were the man I was five years ago I’d take a flame-thrower to this place!! Out of order, who the hell do you think you’re talking to? I’ve been around, you know? There was a time I could see. And I have seen, boys like these, younger than these, their arms torn out, their legs ripped off. But there is nothin’ like the sight of an amputated spirit, there is no prosthetic for that. You think you’re merely sending this splendid foot-soldier back home to Oregon with his tail between his legs, but I say that you are executing his soul! And why? Because he’s not a Baird man. Baird men, you hurt this boy, you’re going to be Baird Bums, the lot of ya. And Harry, Jimmy, Trent, wherever you are out there, fuck you too.

Now as I came in here, I heard those words…cradle of leadership. Well, when the bough breaks, the cradle will fall. And it has fallen here, it has fallen! Makers of men, creators of leaders, be careful what kind of leaders you’re producing here. I don’t know if Charlie’s silence here today is right or wrong; I’m no judge or jury. But I can tell you this: he won’t sell anybody out to buy his future! And that my friends is called integrity, that’s called courage. Now that’s the stuff leaders should be made of. (pause) Now I have come to the crossroads in my life. I always knew what the right path was. Without exception, I knew. But I never took it, you know why? It was too damn hard. Now here’s Charlie; he’s come to the crossroads. He has chosen a path, it’s the right path. It’s a path made of principle, that leads to character. Let him continue on his journey. You hold this boy’s future in your hands, committee! It’s a valuable future. Believe me! Don’t destroy…protect it…embrace it. It’s gonna make you proud someday…I promise you.”

Not quite the same, but still bearable.

Now, to make matters worse, if Lt. Col. Slade was a busy corporate officer, he probably would have just sent an email saying

————————————————————————–

From: “Slade” <slade@imsoeffingbusy.com>

To: “Jerks” <committee@worthlesspieceofjunk.com>

Subject: Re: Simms Trial whatever

———————————————————————————

 “Hi Committee,

I think Simms should not be tried.

Thanks,

Slade”

———————————————————————————-

An email like the above example, manages to convey a few very subtle messages as listed below.

• It gets the point across.
• It saves time (just a few seconds and you’ve finished a long-pending task!).
• It is easy to write.
• It makes Slade appear busy, probably important and even stressed (which is again a modern symbol of an individual’s importance).
• It makes Mr. Simms and the Committee look small, unimportant and worthless in Slade’s universe.
• It shows Slade’s limited vocabulary.
• It does not show Lt. Col. Slade to be half the man he is.

Given all the shortcomings of written communication highlighted above, and the importance associated with emails in our professional and personal lives, it’s appalling to see how easily people succumb to the comforts of “a quick email” to get a lot of stuff out of their way. Agreed that it isn’t possible to send detailed emails explaining everything every time, but we need to realize that the more we take out of a piece of communication, the less meaningful and effective it becomes. And while there will always be people who would argue that it’s not a good idea to be excessively verbose in our communication, such people need to realize that when it comes to being concise or being brusque, the lines can often get blurred. What seems to the writer as being to-the-point and time-saving, can often come across as incoherent, unclear and even terse to the reader.

The importance of making the right impression cannot be overemphasized in today’s world. Because of increasing connectedness among people due to the reach of all-pervasive social media, it is very likely that someone you want to impress will have more people in common with you than you realize- and this list might even include people you thought you could walk all over and get away with.

So the next time you hit that “Send” button, think twice and make sure your recipients are not left wondering if you meant to inform them, or insult them. It’s a small world. And people often come back in our lives when we least expect them, or worse, when we least want them to come!

 

Incidentally both the video clips have James Rebhorn playing the Devil’s Advocate. I would like to clarify that it’s purely a coincidence. 🙂

The Rise of Facebook – And Why Google Is Worried.

The recent change of command at the Google headquarters has made one thing clear – that Google, for the first time in its history, is rattled and has acknowledged a serious competition to its decade-long dominance over the internet. With erstwhile CEO Eric Schmidt making way for the notoriously media shy Larry Page, Google sent out the clearest signals that there has been a clear shift in Google’s strategy, and that it is going to be more pronounced in coming days.

From the heady days of redefining the internet and becoming one of the greatest companies in the world, to a time when the Google trio of Sergey Brin, Larry Page and Eric Schmidt was the most formidable group in Silicon Valley, Google met with plenty of obstacles and successfully overcame them.
In the beginning, Google, like the proverbial David, took on the reigning rulers of the information technology world (read Microsoft) and took away first their internet search business, followed by the web-based mails and then the Browser Wars and forced Microsoft to concentrate on their core competencies of Operating Systems and Enterprise applications. The next victims of the Google juggernaut were the web-based instant-messaging clients like yahoo messenger and msn messenger who faded into oblivion thanks to the pristinely simple and effective Google Talk.

This and a host of innovative products like Android, Google News, Google Earth and Blogger ensured that Google was the first word that popped into a user’s mind the moment they logged onto the internet for anything. The Google impact was so strong that internet browsing and searching for information started being referred to as “Googling”.

During the course of its journey, Google also ran into issues with governments and legal agencies over screening of its search results and sometimes over privacy issues, especially for services like Google Maps. Detractors called its motto a façade, its technical capability a sham and its business strategy directionless, but Google kept flying high. On the power of amazing technical innovations, great user experience, smart revenue-generation mechanisms, strategic takeovers and a largely unblemished reputation, the prices of Google’s stocks consistently performed way ahead of the competition.

Google, during its expansion from a two-member Stanford dorm-room company to a 24,000 plus California corporate house, also had its share of poaching allegations but kept attracting the best talent from all over the globe and kept being named as one of the best places to work. Everything seemed perfect.


Then, a curly-haired, 20-something kid from Harvard arrived on the scene.

The web2.0 revolution made one thing clear. The days of static web pages and sponsored content were over. This age was defined by the generation that had grown up with the internet and wanted to and could generate its own content online. I have always felt that this was something that many companies, Google included, failed to read early. True, Google created Orkut and did meet with some success in the non-US market; and Myspace did enjoy considerable success in the early part of the last decade, something was always missing in the way these products reached out to their users.
Essentially, Google was, and remains till date, a search company. It’s great at creating crawlers that would read the entire World Wide Web and its pockets so that you can have just the information you want in a fraction of a second, free of cost, but I’m not sure how well Google reads its users and their social trends.

To say that Facebook just happens to enjoy a colossal stroke of luck is to do a bit of disservice to the man behind it. Facebook has proved that at the end of the day, people don’t just want information, they want to share it. I think it’s the second-best example of how user-generated content is preferred by users over organization-generated content, the best example being of course, Wikipedia. And after all, isn’t that what the internet was meant for- sharing information?

Facebook and Zuck (Mark Zuckerberg) didn’t really start off wishing to change the world. On the contrary, Zuck just wanted his friends to look at pictures of girls and vote if they thought the girl was “Hot” or “Not”. In a way, this was an example of the brilliance of Mr. Zuckerberg when it came to, among other things, knowing what people wanted. Today Facebook has over 600 million active users signed up with it who are talking, sharing, watching, planning and, potentially carrying billions of dollars of revenue for anyone who gets their attention.

Somewhat unwittingly, facebook has made a dent in Google’s throne. Google, for a while now, has been struggling to get its social networking business up to a standard where it can be called a Google business without sounding apologetic. It tried first with Orkut which could not take one blow from Facebook and then with the biggest dud in the history of Google – the Google Wave.

Though it still had search, and image sharing, and YouTube and Gmail and gtalk, the day Facebook surpassed Google to become the most visited website in the world, Google knew this was no stroke of luck – this was different.

If you are an active Facebook and Google user like me, you might not have even realized that we don’t really search Google for weather updates, film/restaurants reviews, and holiday planning anymore. We don’t even upload our pictures on Picasa or videos on YouTube. Heck! We don’t even ping our friends on gtalk!
Why? Because all that is already there by them on Facebook! The gateway to the internet for a user is no longer Google, it’s Facebook. And when Facebook recently refurbished its messaging service to extend functionalities offered it made clear that Facebook is going to rewrite emailing too.

Gradually, step-by-step, and while Google was happily sleeping in its Ivory Tower, Facebook has become the new destination of choice for netizens. The IPO frenzy that Facebook’s IPO plans caused resulted in the IPO being postponed altogether. Mark Zuckerberg has been named the Time Person of the Year 2010. The movie “The Social Network” based on Zuck’s life is nominated in 8 categories for the Academy Awards and has already won the Golden Globe for Best Picture. Users are organizing trips, meetings and even revolutions on Facebook- Facebook is everywhere! Just the way once Google was.

How Larry Page – so far the man “behind” most of Google’s innovation and products takes upon arguably the toughest challenge of his illustrious career remains to be seen. But one thing is certain- that we are going to see plenty of action in the coming days from both the sides. In a way, it’s good to have competition as that’s how you keep moving. But every time something like this happens, I wonder if David and Goliath are really two different characters of just two different phases in the life of the same entity!