The Lean Approach to Email Management: It's Not About Technology

(Note: this is a copy of a post I just put up on my own blog.  For more goodies on the lean approach to managing email and information, and how to create individual lean work habits, go here.) 

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Yesterday's Wall Street Journal article, Email's Friendly Fire (available for free here), shows just how wide is the gulf between lean thinking and conventional thinking.

First, the sobering (frightening?) data: last year, the average corporate email user received 126 messages a day, a 55% increase from 2003. Translating that number into your most valuable commodity -- time -- workers are now spending 26% of their day managing email, a number expected to hit 41% by 2009. (All figures from the Radicati Group.)  And while your mileage may vary, you're probably not too far off these numbers.

The problem isn't really spam, either:

Email overload is now considered a much bigger workplace problem than traditional email spam. Inboxes are bulging today partly because of what some are calling "colleague spam" -- that is, too many people are indiscriminately hitting the "reply to all" button or copying too many people on trivial messages, like inviting 100 colleagues to partake of brownies in the kitchen. A good chunk of today's emails are also coming from brand new sources, like social- and business-networking sites like Facebook Inc. and LinkedIn Corp., or text messages forwarded from cellphones.

Naturally, when there's a problem like this, there's always someone ready to take venture capital and create a technological solution. And sure enough, one of the companies mentioned, Xobni, has a product that places a set of features on top of a customer's email inbox, such as "profiles" of online contacts complete with photos, and quick links to set up appointments.

But is that going to solve the problem? Are you really going to have fewer messages or spend less time processing email if you have a photo of the sender?

Look, I'm sure there's more to Xobni than that, but I still question the blind faith in a technological solution. And that's where we come to lean thinking.

Toyota is legendary for its production efficiency. The company is also legendary for being slow to introduce new technology. Management has always felt that it's pointless to spend money on shiny new hardware, software, and equipment when the underlying process is broken: first get the process right, and then figure out whether it makes sense to invest in new technology. (This is true for both factories and offices.) Detroit automakers learned this lesson the hard way, when after investing billions in robots and the highest-tech plants in the 1980s and 90s, they found that their quality still couldn't match Toyota's standard.

So when a company develops a program that promises to make email management in Outlook easier, I'm skeptical. Because the greatest technology in the world is worthless if the underlying process is broken. And it is.

The real reason why workers are pissing away their days in their inbox is that most of the mail is worthless crap. In conjunction with yesterday's article, the WSJ did a reader's poll in which 79% of responders said that less than half their emails are valuable.

   

You want to talk about muda?  Think about the colossal waste of time these numbers represents. Conservatively speaking, people are spending at least 13% of their days wading through electronic garbage. And the number is probably a lot higher than that.

The real solution to the explosion of email isn't a new Outlook add-in that makes sorting, filing, or finding email easier, any more than the solution to your weight problem is buying a bigger pair of pants.

The real solution -- the lean solution -- is to reduce the volume of email that you're generating and receiving in the first place.

I'm not a Luddite. I don't think that we should go back to the Pony Express to handle all our communication. Email is an amazingly powerful tool that can make business easier and more productive. (Although, in the words of Matt Cornell, it should be treated like a chainsaw: powerful but dangerous.)  And it's not going away anytime soon.

But if you don't begin to reduce the volume of email you deal with and actually start doing your job, by 2009 you're going to become one of those folks who spend 41% of your day dealing with email. And that doesn't sound like fun, unless you really enjoy working at home while your family stares like Sigourney Weaver in Alien.

A tax attorney I know was just told by Alcoa, his client, that they no longer want to communicate with him via email. Apparently, Alcoa's in-house attorneys and accountants are so swamped by email that they can't deal with any more. Now they have a conference call twice a week to cover all the issues. Not coincidentally, they're getting more done in less time. Documents are still being sent by email, of course, but the substantive discussions are done by phone, which is a far more effective way of communicating.

You may not be ready (or able) to make such a Draconian change in email policy where you work, but here are some simple ideas that you can try to manage the flood of email:

• When you send an email to a group of people, put the recipients in the BCC field. That prevents them from hitting reply all. (If you want to show who was on the list, put their names in the body of the email.)

• Commit to a daily 10 minute meeting/phone call with your main email correspondents. Be focused: cover all non-urgent items that you might otherwise have put in an email. You'll be amazed at how many emails you can preempt. And honor that commitment: put it in your calendar so that you don't forget.

• Pick up the phone.

• Get off your ass and walk over to the other person.  (Speaking of getting lean....)
  

To paraphrase Kevin Meyer, it doesn't pay to worship the false god of the technological solution. Attack the problem at the root, rather than trying to apply some sort of electronic panacea to a fundamentally broken system. That's lean thinking. And it works.

Comments

[Matt Brezina]

Hey Dan,

I completely agree with the bullets you laid out at the bottom of your post. We attempt to implement those very same practices within Xobni (the company).

Xobni Insight isn't designed to reduce the number of emails you receive, it is designed to let you get through the emails you receive faster. With lightning fast search, threaded conversations, quick attachment views and instant contact info discovery Xobni makes the email experience better for someone who gets 20 emails a day or someone who gets 200.

I'm glad there are people working on both the technological side and the behavioral side of email management. It is obviously a large pain point for millions of people.

Regards,
Matt
Co-founder/Xobni

[Dan Markovitz]

Matt,

Good point. And I certainly didn't mean to imply that your product is a waste; it isn't. In conjunction with the behavioral tools that we both mentioned, it's a powerful aid for information management. After all, Toyota *does* deploy new technology. . . once they've got the people and the process problems figured out.

[Lou English]

Dan,

I have done lots of lean projects with office businesses and email management is always one of the top issues/opportunities raise by the participants. I have found the way an organization manages its email is a way it manages its business.

Ask people why they feel a need to put all those people on their cc lists or bcc lists. It could be CYA fear, it could be the lack of personal recognition. it could be trying to avoid accountability. It could be a way to deal with an unresponsive leadership.
Below is a list of guidelines I give management to begin solving the "email problem" since it starts with them.
Email Protocol (Draft)

Assumptions and Expectations:

• Do not send an unsolicited email unless it requires a specific decision or action. If a decision is required, send all accompanying data and background so a follow-up request to get it.

•Do not include me on a CC listing if you have sent the message to someone who reports directly to me. I expect my staff to manage their responsibilities and then make the decision if I need to be further informed.

•Do not send “information only” or “just in case” memos.

•If you originate an email message or memo you are expected to keep the original on file for future reference.

•If you send an email assume it has been received. There is no need to send follow-up inquiries to insure it has been received.

•Refrain from use of the “Reply to All”
Use of “Out of Office Assistant”

•If you will be out of the office for an entire day or longer, turn on your Out of Office assistant with a message indicating when you will return and who can be contacted on your behalf.

•If you will be out for an extended period of time, consider having your email forwarded to a proxy

•Attached files should be limited in number and in total size. Consider placing a file on a common drive location and then provide a “Shortcut link” or detailed

Lou English PhD.