Human communication can sometimes be a strange and subtle thing. I was reminded of this, this week, in an online exchange where there was a misunderstanding, and things should I say, got a little testy.

I am not sure what exactly has happened, but the social media age seems to have changed us. Online communication, and on social media in particular, there now seems to be no filter. Critical or hurtful, many people just say what they think, irrelevant to the consequence of what is being said. You only have the read the comments listed on Twitter or Facebook to see this played out – keyboard warriors all in the privacy of our front room.

This behaviour clearly seems to be now also bleeding through to email too.

Fortress email

For me the email was always a bastion of caution. How many of us have spend hours pouring over an email, trying to get the wording just right – trying to convey a message clearly, yet also avoiding any misinterpretation.

It was never easy and, being human, I know I have dropped more than a few clangers on the way, even sitting on emails overnight to re-read in the cold light of the next day.

However, in this new world of insta-comment with expectations of insta-response, I wonder if all this caution is fading. Now in emails too, it seems we are frequently becoming more grumpy.

Power of human centred communication

Although digital forms of communication are everyday, thanks to the easing of lockdown restrictions, I am now able to get out to meet people again in person. The contrast has been quite stark.

Within 10 minutes, many misunderstandings are smoothed over with things back on track. It may not change what was said, but somehow it just doesn’t seem relevant with the person standing in front of you. Most of the time we all like to try to get along.

All of this points again to the importance of human to human interaction, in generating common understanding and avoiding misunderstanding. In our remote working, digital-enabled world this has important implications.

Undoubtedly exchanging information digitally is highly efficient, quick and easy. For many things, transactional and everyday, it works very well. However, when things become complicated, fraught or sensitive injecting the human element is clearly important. Another human reaching out offering genuine support can be invaluable.

Avoiding consequences and cost

Getting this right is a tricky balance. Doing it well can not only provide better support and understanding, but also avoid negative consequences of misunderstanding and save the cost of subsequently picking up the pieces.

As we exit lockdowns and look for a new balance, it is something we may all need to factor in.

Have a good weekend everyone.

This week with much of the talk, and data, pointing to a potential third wave of cases many of us have been thinking about what happens next.

Certainly, we are all fed up with lockdowns and being stuck at home, however running the risk of mass infections again also seems a like backward step.

No answers yet and we need to monitor closely to see how the situation evolves. however is it time to think about how we manage all this sustainably going forward? As in most things, it is probably not one extreme or the other, but a balanced, somewhere in-between. I have a couple more office trips in the works, planned for the next few weeks, so it is top of mind. COVID tests at the ready again I think.

On the topic of work life balance there was also discussion around out of hours emails this week too. In France work emails, out of hours, are frowned up and actually legislated against and there is discussion about whether we should have something similar in the UK.

There was plenty of conversation on how such a scheme could (or couldn’t) work. And, with many of us do catch up on emails at the start or end of the day in order to concentrate on interacting with people when they are available, this would be a tricky behavioural change. Any legislation is likely to be hard to enforce.

However, these days, it is not just email. In fact, the focus on email seems somewhat dated, with most of us are now communicating on platforms such as Teams, Whatsapp or Slack ( or discord eg here 🙂 ).

These do have the benefit of being easier to turn off, although during work hours also seem to command an even faster response time… and the worst feature… you can see if they have been read, and if the recipient has not responded… its a recipe for stress right there! It does seem like these should be included too.

What we have found during COVID is that digital working can tend to extend the day. My commute time in particular, has been absorbed into working time, and work-life seems to be more of a blend than it has ever been before.

In one sense this has been extremely helpful, enabling flexibility like never before and extra time when needed to get things done. However, at the extreme, it can become a problem.

It seems there is a growing awareness that we need to build some balance back going forward…. this in itself is probably not a bad thing.

Have a good weekend everyone