Talk, don’t email: Difference between revisions

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-{{A|negotiation|{{image|Onworld and Offworld Comms|png|A quadrant, yesterday. I’m no happier about it that you are, believe me.}}}}Some time in the last decade, we lost the art — the ''joy'' — of the spontaneous two-way conversation. We eschewed it for the transmission of electronic letters, flung like percussive grenades between barricaded trenches. If we talk at all, we do so by pre-arrangement, in formal, minuted, stage-managed, all-hands conferences.
+{{A|negotiation|{{image|Onworld and Offworld Comms|png|A quadrant, yesterday. I’m no happier about it that you are, believe me.}}}}Some time in the last decade, negotiators lost the art — the ''joy'' — of the spontaneous two-way conversation. We eschewed it for the transmission of electronic letters, flung like percussive grenades between barricaded trenches. If we talk at all, we do so by pre-arrangement, in formal, minuted, stage-managed, all-hands conferences.
-This is a shame.
+This is a shame. The [[JC]] has his theories, as usual, why this happened: negotiations were passed down, with printed instructions, into greener and greener hands, where writing everything down and emailing it was just ''safer''.
-If process efficiency is your goal — if, like me, you’ve recently discovered the [[Toyota Production System]] and can’t stop thinking about it, if you are all about eliminating [[waste]] and {{wasteprov|waiting}} time, consider the difference between '''emailing''' the guy in [[credit]] with your question, and waiting 24 hours for him to pick it up, think about it, and send you an elliptical reply (as likely as not kicking off a [[circle of escalation]]) — it never quite answers the question you had first time, does it? — or [[calling]] the guy up and asking him there and then?
+But if process efficiency is your goal — and the goal of [[Juniorisation|juniorising]] and the [[Playbook|playbookification]] of negotiation is, without question, process efficiency —  then this tendency is [[Sod’s law]] at work. Consider the difference between '''emailing''' the [[credit]] officer with your question, and waiting 24 hours for her to pick it up, think about it, and send you an elliptical reply (as likely as not kicking off a [[circle of escalation]]) — it never quite answers the question you had first time, does it? — or just [[calling]] her up and asking her there and then?
-In the first case there is so much {{wasteprov|waiting}}: the time it takes to compose that [[email]], setting out the issue clearly, the pros and cons and the desired outcome. Then the {{wasteprov|waiting}}. The wondering. The nervousness. The stress. The heart flutters, as you neurotically pick petals off the daisy. Has he read it? Will he soon? Does he even ''care''? Should I maybe send a follow-up [[email]]? Will I seem ''needy''?
+In the first case, there is so much {{wasteprov|waiting}}: the time it takes to compose that [[email]], describe your problem, outline the arguments for and against and your suggested outcome.<ref>This is the perfect means of escalation. Few are as well-formed as this.</ref> Then the {{wasteprov|waiting}}. The ''wondering''. The nervousness. The stress. The heart flutters, as you pick petals off the daisy. Has she read it? Will she soon? Does she even ''care''? Should I maybe send a follow-up [[email]]? Will I seem ''needy''?
-(It will ''never'' occur to a [[negotiator]] to call. This may be because systematic juniorisation of the [[negotiation]] function means the negotiators do not have the experience and expertise to talk fluently on their subject matter, and are therefore ''afraid'' to call — and ironically their counterparts, similarly juniorised, will be afraid to pick up.)
+It will ''never'' occur to call. This may be because systematic [[juniorisation]] of the [[negotiation]] function means the negotiators do not have the experience and expertise to talk fluently on their subject matter, and are therefore ''afraid'' to call — and their counterparts, similarly [[juniorised]], will be afraid to pick up.)
 ===External negotiation===