E-mails are doomed (1/2): New and better tools are here

New platforms enable employees to collaborate, solve problems, come up with new ideas and also create new internal procedures. These technologies allow co-workers to contact people with whom otherwise they might never have interacted.

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New forms of collaboration

Platforms such as internal blogs, wikis, content sharing sites, videoconferencing systems and social networking programmes are moving into businesses.

The benefits of e-mail are clear, according to an article on the strategy-business.com website. You have a written record of exchanges and it can be sent easily. What about the drawbacks?

  • Information overload: an overflowing inbox can increase the stress you feel.
  • Lack of face-to-face interaction: this can decrease colleagues’ trust in one another and barriers between people may arise.

Using e-mail at the workplace – we are simply used to it

And this habit is not easy to break, according to a recent study. Co-worker collaboration via newer social platforms may not be the perfect solution – for now.

Managers must make a committed effort to promote new technologies as the pillar of both interoffice communication and a way to distribute information and specific know-how.

A new trend is appearing

In some firms, the use of e-mail is being eliminated – at least as a means of communication among employees. In 2011, the CEO of one large international company went so far as to ban all internal e-mails. This was part of an effort to build a new culture of knowledge sharing.

What is this company using instead?

  • Social media platforms
  • Videoconferencing systems
  • Electronic whiteboards (enabling posting and editing messages that anyone in the group can access)
  • Document management programmes (shared repositories for project organisation and data)

-jk-

Article source Strategy+Business - a U.S. management magazine
Read more articles from Strategy+Business

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