So let’s embrace email. Let’s embrace each other. And respond.

Whitney Hess wrote a soft, human and gentle post about e-mail and that we should embrace and respond to e-mails instead of bitching about them. The post paints a picture of a world where all mails are sent with concern for the recipient. Unfortunately that is not the case for way to many e-mail.

To embrace and respond is something that works in the best of worlds, but we all know that it is not always the right intentions that triggers to send an e-mail. Many e-mails are pure egoistic, they are triggered to push their own task onto others, they are triggered to show the rest (on to: and cc:) of the world that you actually are doing something. it is easy to say “Let’s embrace”, but when it is so easy to hide behind your screen and shoot e-mail left and right without taking responsibility for how they are received, it is damn hard to embrace and respond to everything. There is a total lack of replication of the social handshake we have in the real world.

If we would treat the e-mails we send in the same way as if they where spoken face-to-face, then it might work to embrace and respond, but now there is a mismatch in behaviour.

Email is people. Needs and wants, questions and advice, aspirations and inspiration. That’s what we’re putting off, avoiding, not making time for, bitching about. People who want to connect with us — we are rejecting them.

To end this rant I just want to let you know that I am not trying to pick a fight or to criticise Whitneys post, I like the post, great positive tone and that she highlights the human side of e-mail.

This article articulates one of my biggest concerns about collaboration software. Collaboration software of today still requires huge amount of change management both on corporate level as well on a personal level.

I have worked within the collaboration space for many years and I have mentored, facilitated workshops, written pre-studies and been a public speaker on the subject. I have for many years used the same arguments as this article, but have now come to realize I am of another opinion and that it is not enablement, management buy-in or change management that is needed. What is needed is better products. What I mean I will explain below, but first let’s do a summary of what the article is saying. Roger Francis is doing it with 6 bullets, I just put the headlines here, but do jump over to his blog to read them all in context:

1. Leadership from the Top
2. Ownership Throughout The Organisation
3. Part of the Culture and Values
4. Social Networks Are A Great Facilitator but not the Total Answer
5. Quick Wins Are Important
6. Focus on the Skills

Now, in todays world those bullets seem very logic and on-spot to make collaboration work and yes, they are, no doubt there, but what I have realized is that it is a flawed approach.

We need better collaboration tools!

That might sound like a strange statement? It might be if we see the world as it has been up to now, but the world changes and that with a pace never seen before, we can’t afford to do things like we always have. It is the same with collaboration, my main points are:

1. As long as we try to use a shoehorn to fit collaboration in between all the other tools we have, like e-mail etc it will never take off
2. We are constantly focusing on trying to make all employees see the value of collaboration and that way try to change their way of working

Number 2 above is the one I would like to focus on, number one is self-explanatory, e-mail and other legacy systems need to be vastly improved. Back to number 2. My conclusion here is that if a tool is not so great that each and every one who uses it feels it adds value to them, they should and won’t use it. Therefore the problem with todays collaboration tools is kind of simple. Make the collaboration software much better. Why are we trying to fit a collaboration product in between e-mail and other legacy products? It is the most profound thing when we think of it, just make great products and the problem will be solved. It is just that simple! 

We also need to remove something and not just add a new tool.

We need tools that give immediate benefits for the user

When working for a company we are quite used to get software shoved down our throat, no questions asked, in some cases we are forced to use them (time-reports, expenses etc), but in many cases we just ignore the tools provided if we do not see enough value in using them. I would say that there are two huge areas that have suffered from this. CRM since sales-people do not see a direct value in using them so they update only a minimum of data to pass through the needle-eye of the sales manager. Many sales persons still use a spreadsheet or their own solution to manage their pipeline and forecast etc, even though the same features are available in the CRM. Simple as that, the motivation is not big enough to update the CRM with all the information. It is the same with most collaboration tools and we tend to try to shoehorn in incitements for employees to use them, but if they are not enjoying, feel that they gain value from the tools and also get appreciation for using the tool it won’t happen.

Do not misunderstand me, I am a true believer in collaboration and I use them and are pushing as many as I can in the direction of getting better to share and discuss information to help yourself and others making better of their days at work. Making faster and better decisions based on information provided by experts inside and outside of your organisation. I love collaboration, but the tools need to be more user centric and more adoptable. 

We need to kill the dependency on e-mail

Now back to the first bullet above, sorry I know I said I would focus on only bullet number two. “As long as we try to use a shoehorn to fit collaboration in between all the other tools we have, like e-mail etc it will never take off”. Companies providing tools today need to think outside the box and start with how we want to communicate and collaborate today, not put another communication layer on-top of what we already have. As I have said many times before, e-mail need innovation and as long as e-mail is the main tool for digital communication it will be hard to make other collaboration tools climb in the value chain if every single tool will plug in to e-mail. Even if we do not want our new fancy tool to be dependent of e-mail the demands will soon come. I remember when Podio started out and they tried to make the product not to rely on e-mail notifications, they soon gave in and implemented e-mail notifications. 

We need INNOVATION!

To get real user adoption and value from collaboration we need to break free from the dependency of e-mail, at least from e-mail as we know it and bring some tolls with great user benefits that are easy to adopt. We do not need management buy-in and workforce ennoblement, we need innovation in the collaboration space!

The productivity hazzle, collaboration dilemma and the prioritization problem in the landscape of online communication today is well documented. Many of us suffer the consequences of what e-mail does to us and we also suffer from the lack of innovation with the e-mail and enterprise collaboration space.

But finally someone has taken on the task:A company called Handle!
(a lot more on Handle a bit down i n the post)

No e-mail innovation

There are many great collaboration tools today, but still the most important one is kept as a isolated silo and no one seems to dare to touch it. E-mail innovation is so close to zero. Unfortunately this is the main reason that most collaboration product do not fill the full value it could within most organizations.

Lately there been some traction in the e-mail client space with products like Mailbox, Sparrow etc. I have written about Mailbox and why I thought it was more of a feature then a product earlier. Even though they got acquihired (yes, that is how I see it) by Dropbox I think my main concerns are still accurate and solid. Two big obstacles are not challenged in todays e-mail innovations:

1. They tend to be built on-top of an existing product like Gmail
2. They do not do things that much different. Still a silo, still stateless, still sender owned communication, still …… you get it. Simply put, just the same e-mail client, but with a snazzy interface.

What I am looking for is a product that thinks out of the box and builds the product that actually reflects the way we communicate today in a business environment. This might have the impact that the product needs it’s own server messaging infrastructure (still compatible with existing protocols).

I have written some posts of what a product like I foresee could include and what value it would bring, so I will not elaborate on that in this post, but will definitely get back on the topic. What I will write about is yet another product like all the ones I do not like (mentioned above). If you have not heard about Handle it might be worth continue reading

Handle - the priority engine

Handle is an on-top of Gmail inbox product that will help you prioretize and improve your personal productivity and task management. Seems very similar to Mailboxapp right?

Two days ago I got my invitation to try Handle out (if you visit the link that I have posted as headline (or this link), there will be invite-codes available). I was initially disappointed, I had higher expectations, this even though I know the product is in it’s very beginning of it’s journey.

As many startups do today, I received a mail from their CEO Shawn Carolan, where he asked for feedback. 99% of those goes to the trash, but since this is an area that really interests me I thought I could give it a couple of minutes, so I sent a mail with short notes. The mail also included my short (not so thought through) thoughts on what a product within this area should look like if it was created today, without legacy etc. 

Handle - the human operating system for online communication

The response from Jonathan McCoy, Founder and VP Product, included some answers, but the most interesting was in regards to my thoughts of a product, he linked to a post on their Tumblr by Shawn Carolan with the headline “Humans need an operating system too”

The post completely made me change my mind on Handle. Their vision is almost exactly the same as my vision. That is something completely new to me. People who know me, know that I have been talking about this for about 10 years by now. 

This is actually the ending of the Handle post, but read it carefully:

Noun — op·er·at·ing sys·tem, for humans.

Software that works in tandem with your mind to support basic functions, such as capturing ideas, triaging inbound information, automating Internet interactions, optimizing the sequencing of tasks, and facilitating focused execution equipped with the right information at the right time, in the right context, to maximize effectiveness in alignment with goals.

The entire post over at the Handle blog is great so jump over and read it. 

I will keep my eyes on Handle and what the team will produce and if they are even near their vision they will do great things for productivity and e-mail (and maybe some other stuff as well).