I'll GET BACK TO YOU
I'LL GET BACK TO YOU, The Dyscommunication Crisis: Why Unreturned Messages Drive Us Crazy And What To Do About It, by Sam George, Post Hill Press, 2021
Does your desk look like this?
Daily emails from three web apps plus texts - 127
Daily emails with ads from unsolicited sellers - 12-30
Critical emails/texts requiring immediate responses, per day - 3-5
Everyday business emails/texts from friends and family - 3
News updates and leads delivered by email and text? countless
The volume of web communications can be overwhelming, and the when somebody doesn't even respond, well that is too much - enuf arreddy! Author Sam George has some quick solutions, however, to remove some of that frustration and reform the digital communication lines. Starting with e-mails, try this:
1. Wait two days (If the response required isn't urgent, of course.)
2. Use an appropriate subject-line strategy from Chapter 8 - to elicit a response. Make it easy for us to catch the drift with a minimum of words.
3. Whatever you do, DON'T FORWARD the previous email. Remember, we're looking for a workable response here, not a wave of anger!
Under George's section "What to Do When the Chase Doesn't Work" the author offers us innovative suggestions to get through the waiting or the non-response disappointment. Among these recommendations for physical relaxation and "natural tranquilizers" there is a neat explanation of the difference between the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous systems that explains how unreturned messages can stimulate our stress and anger levels beyond what we need to effectively deal with a problem. These include what he calls "In-the-Moment Remedies: Natural Tranquilizers" for muscular relaxation such as the earth-facing pose and the stress-less standing swing, and one of my all-time favorites, feet up on the wall.
But the best de-stressor comes from Mark Divine, a US Navy SEAL combat veteran whom we have encountered before. Box Breathing - also called 4 x 4 - is used to activate the parasympathetic nervous system during stressful situations. Its intended to clarify the mind when it is important to think and see situations clearly. Here it goes:
1. Expel the air from your lungs
2. Keep the lungs empty for 4 seconds
3, Inhale through your nose for 4 seconds
5. Hold for a 4 count (don't clamp down or create pressure; go easy)
5. Exhale for a 4 count
6. Repeat for 10 - 20 minutes.
Even if new cyber security protocols reduce digital traffic volume and even when AI personalizes digital communications to the point where we can be clearer on responses, we still need some simulation of a "human" approach to enhance the missing in-person, unrestricted communications. It just may be that with inhuman volumes and demands, digital will take another approach. But in the meantime, just like this pandemic, to get through it, we're going to need a bigger boat.
Patricia E. Moody
FORTUNE magazine "Pioneering Woman in Mfg"
IndustryWeek IdeaXchange Xpert
A Mill Girl at Blue Heron Journal, on-line resource for business thought-leaders and decision-makers, patriciaemoody@gmail.com