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For you who prefer listening to reading, this post is also available as an episode of the ""Done!"" podcast:

The clear­er, the better

One thing that can be agreed upon is, for exam­ple, how to use the sub­ject line in emails. The clear­er it is, the eas­i­er it will be for the recip­i­ent to inter­pret what the email is about, even before they have read it. With the right label­ing, one can quick­ly under­stand how long it will take to han­dle the email, whether they are expect­ed to take action, or how quick­ly the sender requires a response. Then it’s easy to choose the right email, in the right order.

Every­one has to be on board — or do they?

But, isn’t it a pre­req­ui­site that we agree on the rules? And, that every­one fol­lows them!?

I like get­ting emails from my client Björn Sand­berg in Upp­sala, Swe­den. We don’t work togeth­er and haven’t decid­ed how we should com­mu­ni­cate with each oth­er via email. Yet, Björn starts the sub­ject line with, for exam­ple: ​“NOT URGENT: ” fol­lowed by his actu­al top­ic. It helps me! If I’m short on time when I receive this, I can save it for lat­er and focus on any urgent emails instead, with­out hav­ing to think about it and with­out Björn’s email stress­ing me out.

And, you know what, when I write back to Björn, I make an effort to for­mu­late myself just as clear­ly and help­ful­ly. He was nice to me, and I want to rec­i­p­ro­cate the kindness.

More as desired, unconsciously

By act­ing in accor­dance with what we could have agreed upon, the con­ver­sa­tion becomes more like that, with­out us ever explic­it­ly agree­ing on it.

If you and your col­leagues haven’t agreed on how to email (or chat or com­ment in any col­lab­o­ra­tion tool) and it nev­er seems to be the right time to dis­cuss it (because there’s always so much going on!), just do it the way you wish oth­ers would. Some col­leagues will fol­low suit, maybe not all.

Do this

1. Con­sid­er what email, chat, or com­ment­ing habit you think would facil­i­tate col­lab­o­ra­tion among all your colleagues.
2. Start doing it.
3. If your hypoth­e­sis holds and your idea actu­al­ly sim­pli­fies things, your col­leagues and oth­ers will like­ly fol­low suit spontaneously.
4. If it turns out that your way com­pli­cates things instead of sim­pli­fy­ing, you’ll hear about it, and you’ll have gained some experience.

A kind of altruism

If you com­mu­ni­cate in the way you think oth­ers should, you can achieve the desired effect with­out requir­ing a joint deci­sion that every­one has to be on board with. Your good exam­ple will spread on its own, and life will become a lit­tle eas­i­er, not just for you, but for every­one who has the priv­i­lege of know­ing you. You have done a good deed.

How do you do it?

What com­mu­ni­ca­tion habit do you wish more peo­ple would fol­low? Tell me! I’m curious.

(We have now looked at how to write emails. What about when to answer them? Check out my post on how fast should we reply to emails for more tips!)