June 7, 2011

It is in our human nature to form groups, committees, teams, and the like. We are social creatures. Some of us are extremely social, while others are not as socially interactive – but in the end, we all need each other.

I find this presents challenges in the workplace today. Email has done wonders for reducing paper consumption, but have you considered what it does for your time? How much time do you spend looking down at your blackberry, or closing a working window to look at our Outlook every time it chimes?

Probably more than you’d care to admit! The fact is, our social nature, as beautiful and useful a creation as it is, is amplified through technology.

Each day, I am “courtesy copied” or “blind courtesy copied” on dozens of emails. How many of those conversations do I need to be involved with? Do I read each of the emails, or do I need to read each one? When I find out that I do need to read them, can I dig back into my email and find it? That might be a problem for those less organized! What happens if my email fails one day, and all those conversations are lost? BIG Loss!

Today, there are many new software products on the market that enable our companies to leverage the social nature of our companies. Enterprise solutions – that allow us to engage with co-workers, or even clients, and help us to reduce the clutter. Sounds pretty powerful right? You bet! We’ll be bringing more information about those tools over the coming weeks. However, in the meantime, I am interested in what your stories are about too much information clutter in your inbox…in your life. Please leave stories in the comments!