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E-mail Tip #26 - Keeping Things in Context

Guest post by: Robert Whipple

Article Overview: One of the real dangers of e-mail is how people can extract short snippits of information that, taken out of context, can distort your meaning. Here is an article that focuses on this aspect of e-mail and offers some suggestions.

E-mail Tip #26 - Keeping Things in Context

When things are taken out of context, their meanings can become distorted. Politicians use this phenomenon all the time. If you extract a short passage from an e-mail and expound on its meaning, you can impute ideas that were not intended by the author. That practice is one of the dangers of e-mail correspondence. Since anyone can extract a single sentence or paragraph out of a full message and send it along with an explanation of its meaning, the person doing the interpretation can distort the meaning in ways the author never intended.

How can you guard against this problem? You can't! You need to rely on the culture of your organization to transmit messages with the original meaning intact. That is why good leadership and high trust are so important. Without them, the environment is ripe for abuse, and e-mail notes are often the vehicle.

There are times when the intent of an e-mail is to persuade others to a certain point of view. Often, using the Socratic Method is the best way to accomplish this. Other times, the intention is to communicate information or instructions clearly, without ambiguity. If other people take information provided by you out of context, your meaning could be lost or grossly distorted. The antidote is to convey messages with such clarity that the meaning can only be skewed by an unscrupulous modifier of the main points. To accomplish this, follow these simple rules:

1. State your main point clearly in the first paragraph of your notes.

2. Amplify and reinforce the points with supporting arguments and data.

3. Reiterate your thesis briefly.

4. Summarize the key points in the final paragraph of your note.

Following these four rules will make it more difficult to put a different spin on your informational note than you intended.

If you detect that someone is using selective editing of your notes, it is important to change that behavior. This discussion would be a delicate one that might be better handled face to face than by sending a series of stressed e-mails. Usually, the other person has made an honest mistake of interpretation, but occasionally you will find a Machiavellian person who is intent on skewing your message. Sort through the underlying issues carefully and handle the negotiation directly, but with tact.

When you interpret the e-body language of a sender, make sure you distill the major points in your own mind. What is the writer trying to say? If it is ambiguous, bounce back with a question or two to clarify the message. The author will be impressed and complimented if you do this with finesse. Here is an example:

"Hi Grace. I read your note and understand the urgency of the situation. I will make sure to transmit this issue accurately to my group. To be sure I have understood your thoughts, here is how I interpret your instructions:

1. We need to stop issuing credit for people who do not have a solid reason for returning product.

2. We need to fill out a Customer Trouble Call form to the Credit Department.

3. We have to confirm that our analysis of the situation is accurate by contacting the customer directly by phone, not in an e-mail.

If this is the message you want to send to our customer service group, please confirm with me. If I have misinterpreted any instructions, please let me know so I can modify the procedure before sending it out. Thank you."

A confirmation note like this will prevent any miscommunication and ensure the intended procedure is communicated. In addition, you will come across as a loyal employee who is dedicated to following directives from the top. This method is not foolproof, however. It depends on a healthy relationship between you and Grace and the right circumstances. It may sound cumbersome to send this kind of note, but it will pay big dividends for your boss and will reflect positively on your professionalism. It will also help to build trust within your group.

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Article Tags: Context, Distortions, Email, Leadership, Trust



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