Improve E-mail With a Gap Analysis

from Able Leader, February 2003

by Steve Kaye

Leaders create success by developing and improving the cultural systems in their organization. Certainly, internal success results in greater profits.

Let’s consider how this would apply to a cultural system that has gotten out of control, such as e-mail.

Start with a gap analysis. The steps include: 1) Describe what you want, 2) Describe what you have, 3) Evaluate reasons for the difference, and 4) Develop solutions.

Provide as much detail as possible in the first two steps because this helps you identify effective solutions. Answers such as "1) Want less e-mail" and "2) Have too much e-mail" could lead to something trivial (just delete half of what comes in).

Too much e-mail, for example, could mean that you receive e-mail about irrelevant matters (such as the agenda for the picnic committee in the Roanoke office) or lengthy, cryptic messages full of typographical errors. Both of these waste your time.

Similarly, what types of messages do you want to receive? From whom? With what format? And how much time do you want to spend processing e-mail?

Notice that a complete assessment of the gap accurately defines the issue.

Next, explore causes for the gap. Generally, people do things because they are using the skills they have or they are following established patterns. For example, you may consider questions such as:

1) Do people know what is expected and how to achieve it? For example, your organization may lack guidelines for e-mail. If so, then directions or training may improve things.

2) Are people rewarded for contributing to the current situation? For example, the last promotion went to the e-mail champion in your office. If so, then you may need to revise the reward system in your organization.

Once you know the cause of the issue, then you can develop solutions.

Although you could work through this analysis by yourself, you will often get better results by consulting others. Depending upon what you judge to be appropriate, you may want to speak with others, assign this as a project to someone else, or convene a meeting.

If you decide to hold a meeting, you may want to hire a facilitator to help. A facilitator can prepare an agenda, manage the meeting process, and write minutes. All of this frees you to participate in your own meeting.

By the way, you can hire me to facilitate this (or other) meetings. I help people get better results in less time than they could have gotten by working alone.

Key Point: Use business tools to solve organizational problems.

Much success,

Steve Kaye
714-528-1300